Memories
by Teagarden
Summary: After a fight with Trigon, Raven ends up in the Young Justice universe with no memory. The Team is happy to help out this strange woman, but the Light has plans for Raven. And what about the Teen Titans, mourning the loss of their dear friend?
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

"Look out!" Beast Boy cried, tackling Speedy as a dark blast nearly smashed into the archer.

Speedy let out a growl of irritation and rolled out from under Beast Boy, jumping to his feet and notching an arrow in one smooth motion.

"Wait, you can't shoot her!" Beast Boy protested, grabbing Speedy's arm.

"Are you kidding?" Speedy demanded, trying to shake off the changeling. "Look at her! She's going to destroy the _entire_ city! Unless you want Jump City to be leveled to the ground, followed by, oh, just the entire planet!"

"It's not her fault!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "She's not in control of herself. We have to stop her without hurting her."

"I've got this!" Jinx yelled, running past them. She flung out an arm and a wave of pink energy shot toward a dark figure floating in the sky. A shield came up to protect the figure and the pink energy dissipated into nothing. "Or not," she muttered.

"Allow me to try," a deep voice requested as Thunder stepped onto his flying cloud. He slammed his hands together and a sonic boom rushed towards the figure. The soundwave hit and the figure staggered in the air before righting herself. She turned four red glowing eyes on Thunder and threw a bolt of black energy that sent him crashing to the ground.

Beast Boy let go of Speedy to run towards his fallen comrade and Speedy pulled back his arrow. Before he released it, the voice of a panicked Kid Flash came over the Titans Communicator. "We need help downtown! These magma, volcano, mutant creature things are too much for us to handle. Hotspot and Mas y Menos are down!"

Speedy let go of his arrow to angrily grab his communicator. "We can't keep splitting our resources like this, Nightwing! Either we focus on the magma creatures or we focus on stopping Raven."

"Trigon!" Beast Boy interrupted angrily from the ground next to the prone form of Thunder. "We're fighting Trigon, not Raven!"

"Whatever!" Speedy yelled before returning to his communicator. "Stopping _Trigon_ should stop all the magma creatures running around, so obviously we need to focus all our power on that. I know there will be casualties if we ignore the creatures, but the casualties will keep mounting every moment that Trigon keeps on going!"

Aqualad's voice crackled over the communicator. "How did the Titans stop Trigon two years ago when he first appeared?"

"The Titans didn't," Cyborg's voice said grimly. " _Raven_ did. The rest of us barely put a scratch on Trigon or his minions back then. It was Raven's power that stopped Trigon, but seeing as Trigon has possessed Raven, I don't think she's going to be much help this time."

"What if Jericho tried to possess Raven?" Kole asked excitedly. "That was his idea, not mine, but maybe that would kick Trigon out."

Speedy saw Jinx shake her head as she grabbed her communicator. "You really think some human with the power of possession can knock an _interdimensional demon_ out of a body? The difference in power is way too great."

"But maybe if it weakens Trigon, even just a little bit, Raven can gain enough control to knock Trigon out of her," Kole argued. "We should at least try it."

Speedy shook his head angrily and shoved his communicator back into his pocket. He knew they needed to come up with a plan, but there was _no time_. Jump City was being destroyed now and if they didn't put a stop to it, the rest of the world would follow.

It was hard to believe that the chaos around them had been down in just a few hours. Buildings on fire, earthquakes tearing the city apart, a boiling ocean yielding up dead fish. Just that morning the Titans East had been talking about a group retreat. Bumblebee wanted them to work on team building and figured a change of scenery would help. Then they received a panicked call from the Titans West calling all Titans to Jump City. Raven's interdimensional demon of a father, who everyone thought had been defeated for good, suddenly appeared inside Raven's body and immediately started working on Domination of the Universe Plan B.

Hesitating a moment, Speedy dropped his sharp arrow and grabbed a freeze arrow instead. Beast Boy was right; Raven was a comrade, not an enemy. He took aim and fired. Raven's (or Trigon's, Speedy was having a hard time keeping all this chaos straight in his head) attention was caught up by Lightning, who kept flying past her and throwing bolts. Trigon blocked each one with Raven's magic, but failed to notice the arrow flying at her/his back. The arrow hit and ice encased her/his back and arms.

With an inhuman shriek, Trigon/Raven burst out of the ice and turned to glare at Speedy. Speedy gulped and turned to run, dodging behind a car. The car lifted and Speedy rolled away, hoping Trigon/Raven didn't plan to drop the car on top of him.

Speedy was saved by Starfire flying towards Trigon/Raven, Jericho in her arms. Jericho's eyes glowed brilliant green as his body turned non-corporeal and leapt into Raven's eyes. The car dropped and Speedy held his breath as he watched. "Come on, come on," he muttered desperately. Red, black, and green energy lashed around Raven's body as all three beings inside fell to the ground.

Raven's back hit the ground and Jericho flew out of her body, landing several feet away. Speedy clenched his fists as he stared at Raven, willing for Raven and Raven alone to rise.

~.~

Nightwing threw another Batarang at the approaching magma monster, but wasn't too optimistic about the results. Only Raven's power seemed to affect the creatures. He looked up at said girl to watch Starfire and Jericho fly towards her. He hoped Kole was right, and that Jericho could weaken Trigon enough for Raven to take control. Raven was strong. If she just got a chance he _knew_ she could fight off Trigon's possession.

He kept one eye on his surroundings and one eye on Raven. When she fell, he ran towards her, then—everything froze. He blinked and looked around in confusion at the gray tones covering everything around him, then jumped back in surprise when Raven appeared in front of him. He took in her _two_ purple eyes and threw his arms around her. "It worked!" He cried, then froze when over Raven's shoulder he saw Raven's form still lying on the ground.

"Huh?" He asked in confusion, pulling back to look at Raven.

"I'm just an astral projection," Raven explained, turning to look at her body. "This is all that I can do." She turned back to stare into Nightwing's eyes, taking one of his hands in her own. "I'm sorry to ask this, but you _have_ to destroy my body."

"No," Nightwing denied, stepping back and pulling his hand away from Raven.

"I won't die," Raven explained quickly, "You won't be killing me. I'll just no longer have a corporeal form."

"Then you might as well be dead!" Nightwing exclaimed.

Raven continued on as though he hadn't spoken. "If you kill my body, Trigon will no longer have a host to possess. No mortal can contain his spirit for more than a few minutes; his energy will burn them up. He'll be weaker without a body. I, on the other hand, will be stronger without one."

Nightwing continued to shake his head. "No, we'll find another way. We're the Teen Titans, we _always_ find another way."

Raven shook her head. "There's no time. If we had known this would happen, or if Trigon possessing my body was a gradual process, I'm sure we could come up with an alternative plan, but if we don't do something now, Trigon _will_ win. He'll use my body to kill my best friends and then he'll take over the universe. We have no choice."

Nightwing's shoulders sank at the same time as Raven's face contorted with effort. "I can't…" She started to say, her astral form flickering. "I can't hold on to the time freeze any longer, Nightwing. You have to stop my heart. I'll take care of the rest. I'm sorry to ask you, but you _know_ you have to do this, Nightwing. The others would fight me on this and refuse. Then we'd all die."

"Raven—" Nightwing began desperately, but the form in front of him disappeared and the eyes of her real body started flickering.

"I'm the leader," Nightwing murmured to himself. "Making the hard decisions will always be my responsibility." Tightly gripping a Batarang, Nightwing ran for Raven's body. He knelt over her and hesitated a moment before plunging the weapon into her chest, closing his eyes and turning his head away so he wouldn't have to see it. Her body jerked once under him before he felt time resume.

"Nightwing?" Beast Boy asked uncertainly. "How did you get…?" He trailed off as he saw the blood flowing from Raven's body and he gasped.

"F-friend Raven?" Starfire trembled. Her voice broke as she fell to her knees, her eyes stuck on Raven.

They all flinched when light burst from Raven's body. Nightwing leaned back to look at the sky as giant, translucent forms of Raven and Trigon took shape above them.

The Titans watched in awe as Raven battled her father, growing stronger and bigger as she overpowered him, finally banishing him back to another realm. Giant Raven closed her eyes and Jump City began to heal. The roiling ocean calmed, split streets sealed together, fires dissipated and the magma creatures faded away.

Raven's form began to fade away too and Starfire cried out, "No! Raven, come back!"

When the form disappeared entirely, Raven's voice entered the minds of the Titans. _"I'm sorry for today. I never meant for any of this to happen. I thought our world was safe from Trigon after we stopped the prophecy and defeated him._ " A pause and Nightwing wondered if Raven had left. _"I cannot thank you enough for being my friends, my family. Thank you for allowing me to be what I never thought was possible for me. A hero."_

This time, Nightwing felt Raven's consciousness flow away and he stared down at Raven's body in despair. He should have known Trigon wasn't gone for good. He should have planned for something like this. Nightwing continued to berate himself as the cries of his comrades filled his ears.

 **A/N:** So, I'm trying something new. Usually I like to have a fanfiction planned out before writing it, so that I know that I'll finish it. Since I don't have much planned out, this probably won't get finished, but I felt the need to write and wanted to try writing for a new fandom. Let me know what you think!


	2. 3 Months Later

**A/N:** Thanks so much for all the responses to the first chapter! I'll try to update this once a week so long as I can figure out what happens next in the story. One of the things I can't decide is if Raven left behind a romantic interest in the Titans Universe. Any thoughts/votes on that?

Also, Happy Holidays to all who celebrate this time of year!

 **Chapter 1: 3 Months Later**

"Professor Ivo has completed the trans-dimensional device," Vandal Savage announced to The Light.

"Wonderful," Queen Bee said sarcastically, sweeping her arm through the air. "Now if only we had a way to power the device."

"But we do have a way to power it, Queen Bee," Brain argued, turning his mechanical body to point towards Klarion. "The Lord of Chaos has the ability to pierce the veil between dimensions. His energy could power the device."

Klarion glared as he pointed a finger at Brain. "I will fill your parts with ants if you try to stick me in that machine Go find your own battery, you mobile organ."

Monsieur Mallah moved to stand protectively in front of Brain.

"Now, now," Savage chastised. "Let's not let our tempers grow heated. We knew from the beginning that finding a power source for the trans-dimensional device would be difficult. Our plans for the device have not yet been finalized. We still have time to find an appropriate battery."

"Easy for the immortal to say," Psimon muttered next to Queen Bee.

"Klarion will find us a source to power the device, as we already agreed upon," Lex Luthor stated. "If he does not find a source by the time we're ready to execute our plans, I'm sure he'd be willing to act as a stand in." Luthor threw an expectant look at the Witch Boy, who has balancing his chair on two legs and staring up at the ceiling.

"Yeah, yeah," Klarion agreed, waving one hand idly at the others. "I'll figure something out. You all just worry your parts and I'll worry about mine."

~.~

Klarion grinned as he flew through the night air holding Teekl in his arms. His thoughts revolved around the chaos The Light's new plan would incite. Teaming up with supervillains from another dimension to confuse and overwhelm the Justice League—This plan was going to be so much fun. He couldn't wait to see what happened.

His smile turned to a frown as he wondered how to power the new device. Stupid Ivo couldn't figure that part out. It could only be powered by magic, not science, and apparently every other member of The Light was too stupid to figure out anything involving magic, which just left things to Klarion. Again. The Light was lucky they provided him with so much entertainment, or he'd just walk away.

One thing that Clarion knew for sure was that he was _not_ going to act as the power source for the trans-dimensional device. But how was he going to—

Clarion stopped suddenly, floating in midair. He tilted his head to the side as he focused his powers. He sensed something. A presence. He closed his eyes and inhaled before a devious grin spread across his face. _This_ was _exactly_ what he needed. The trans-dimensional device would need a physical body to power it, but that was no problem. He didn't know how the being he sensed had lost her body, but her DNA would still be coded inside her essence. Making a new body just like the old and stuffing her inside was only a matter of a few items and a spell.

But first he needed a temporary container. Klarion looked down at the familiar in his arms before holding him up high. "You don't mind, do you, Teekl?" He asked. "It'll just be for a little while."

Teekl meowed, which Klarion took as a sign of consent. Holding Teekl up even higher, he chanted, "Resbit nuthal mircut kodal!" The familiar glowed with a dark light and struggled viciously as the woman's essence poured into him. Klarion frowned as he watched the woman's essence fight the transfer. She was more powerful than he expected. It was almost too much for Teekl's body to handle. Then his frown flipped into a grin. This being would work quite nicely for powering Ivo's device. The chaos of the universe was smiling upon Klarion to bring him exactly what The Light needed to execute their plans.

Once the transfer complete, Klarion created a portal to one of the special labs The Light had provided for him and flew inside.

Locking Teekl in a cage, Klarion hummed as he moved around his workshop, gathering the materials he needed and throwing them on a marble alter. Stone was more traditional for alters, but the marble was just so much shinier.

Klarion had almost finished preparing to recreate the woman's body when he peered into Teekl's cage suspiciously. He hadn't heard a peep the entire time he'd been working. That didn't match with how much the woman had fought him when he first placed her into Teekl. Teekl laid curled up in a corner and blinked up at him.

Klarion placed his hands on either side of the cage and peered into Teekl's eyes. "You're not getting away," he said, just to make things clear. "I don't know why you're acting so calm now, but you can't escape from a Lord of Chaos, so there's no point in you lulling me into a sense of security and then trying to pul some fancy trick to escape." No response. He shrugged. Maybe she just knew who she was dealing with now and had given up.

He meandered back to the alter and stood at the head of it, holding his arms out with his palms face down. "Itbay mushral kundai rothbac." The woman's essence streamed from Teakl to hang over the alter and the ingredients he'd gathered began to swirl and mix with her essence. "Kushni ubet ronen!"

A bright flash lit up the dark corners of the room. When the light faded, a young woman with long dark hair and pale skin laid upon the alter adorned in a simple black robe.

Klarion tapped the jewel in the middle of her forehead as he considered his prisoner. Something about her felt familiar somehow. Should he know this woman? After a moment he shrugged off the thought. Not like it mattered. Either way, she was a perfect power source for the trans-dimensional device.

Pulling out his phone, Klarion called Savage. "I have our power source," he announced. "A pretty little thing with the power of interdimensional travel." He ran one black nail down her face, wishing their plans were ready to be executed.

"That was fast," Savage replied.

"I don't like to waste time," Klarion said nonchalantly. "So the rest of you better finalize your plans for the trans-dimensional device quickly."

"You're sure your chosen power source will work?"

Klarion bristled at the insinuation that he might be wrong. "Of course I'm sure! Do you think I'm an idiot? The battery I found isn't even from our dimension; she used her _powers_ to get here! In fact, she comes from the dimension we plan to contact, making her even more perfect as our power source."

"Very well. Ra's al Ghul has a warehouse for holding prisoners in Bludhaven. Transport the power source there and leave it in the League of Shadows care for now."

"Fine. But don't forget to give her food and water. The power source is mortal. I think. She'll die if you don't give her anything."

"She'll be well taken care of until we need her. We want our power source to be in prime condition when we put our plans into action."

~.~

Nightwing ducked into an alley as a car drove by, avoiding the bright beams. He peered around the wall after it passed, checking to make sure the way was clear. He stepped into the street again and checked the numbers on the closest warehouse. B-23. Two more until he reached his destination.

He moved silently through the night, keeping his awareness on his surroundings. It still felt weird to be alone with no back up. Not that Nightwing couldn't handle life as a solo superhero, he'd just worked with a team for so long…but after Wally died six months ago, he couldn't bear to continue on with the team the two of them helped form. He missed The Team, but this was what he needed right now.

Nightwing shook those thoughts off as he reached the warehouse he wanted. After monitoring this place for the last month, he felt sure the League of Shadows was using this place. His investigations had already proved that the steel manufacturing company that owned this building was just a front.

Bypassing the front of the building, Nightwing slipped around to a side entrance and knelt down as he slid out his lock picks. Two minutes later and he stood inside. The building seemed empty, but Nightwing still stayed away from the windows and the dim light they let into the room.

Quietly, he pried off the lid of the nearest box. Guns. Except, the League of Shadows didn't use guns, so these weapons either had to be meant for The Light, or some other ally of the Shadows. Nightwing narrowed his eyes as he viewed the large pile of boxes. Did they all contain weapons? He didn't have the time to search them all, and he still had the rest of the facility to investigate.

Nightwing carefully picked out a random sample of ten throughout the room to judge by. Yep, all weapons. This might be a big enough operation for him to call in Batman or Batgirl for help.

Next he found what looked like a hall of offices. He peered through the windows of one of the rooms and had just decided to go inside to check out the filing cabinet when a glint of metal down the hall caught his eye. An electronic metal door. Nightwing frowned and made his way to the door. It required a retinal scan to get in, which meant he _definitely_ wanted to get in there.

He hooked up his wrist computer to the scanner and started typing. He knew how to slip by a system like this. All he needed was a holographic rendering of an eye belonging to someone keyed into the system and he'd be in. They only question was, what eye did he need? Who would have access to a door like this? Someone high up and trusted by Ra's al Ghul. The eye of the Demon's Head would probably get Nightwing in, but a system like this would hold a record of who last used it and with Ra's currently in the Middle East, using him would be a dead giveaway that someone had discovered and infiltrated this warehouse, something Nightwing did _not_ want to do. It took him months to find this place and the last thing he wanted was to scare the League of Shadows into finding a new hideout.

Ubu was high up and had been spotted in National City during the past month. Nightwing brought up a photo of Ubu, taken during one of The Team's fight's with the League, and enlarged it until he had a close-up of Ubu's eye, then he started the process of creating a holographic rendering of the eye. He kept his attention sharp as the computer worked, listening intently for any sounds and peering into the dark shadows nearby.

Finally, the computer finished. Holding his breath, Nightwing held up his holograph to the retina scanner. A red beam light shot out and analyzed the copy of Ubu's eye. The light above the scanner blinked red before flashing green and a triumphant grin spread across Nightwing's face.

The mechanical door hissed as it slid open. Nightwing stepped forward, then froze in surprise.


	3. Rescue

**A/N:** Tuesday feels like a random day to update after I just decided I would update every Saturday, but I had the chapter done so thought why not? I have this annoying tendency to get obsessed with my fanfictions.

 **Chapter 2: Rescue**

Nightwing froze as he saw what the room contained. A girl around his age, seventeen or eighteen, lay unconscious on a metal bed. He stepped forward slowly, looking around the room for signs of a trap. Why would there be a teenage girl in a warehouse owned by the League of Shadows? And locked up behind a door requiring a retinal scan to get in, no less. She had to be a prisoner.

Pausing a few feet away, Nightwing studied the girl. She reminded him a little of Zatana with her thin build and long dark hair, but she was paler, and had a red jewel in the center of her forehead. He frowned at the black robe covering her as he wondered who she could possibly be. His first thought was a traitor to the Shadows, but no traitor would be left unguarded. They were either killed on sight or brought immediately to Ra's Al Ghul for judgement.

Could she be a hapless innocent walking by who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? A young reporter sticking her noise too deep into a story? Surely the League of Shadows would have simply killed someone under those circumstances, meaning they needed something from this prisoner. Information maybe? Deciding that standing the in middle of a League of Shadow's warehouse was not the best time to speculate on this, Nightwing reached down and shook the girl's shoulder to wake her up.

No response. He shook her harder before feeling for a pulse. It was slow, but steady. He lifted one eye lid and his shoulders slumped at what he saw. The girl was drugged, meaning that the only way she was leaving this facility was if he carried her. Picking her up and slinging her over his shoulder, he made his way back to the door. He regretted the lost opportunity to investigate what the League of Shadows was up to in Bludhaven, but saving the woman had to take priority.

He just stepped into the hallway when he heard the faint whistle of something sharp flying through the air. He dodged back into the room before the door slid shut and put the girl gently on the floor, placing her so the door wouldn't automatically shut behind him. "This will just take a minute," he assured the unconscious teenager as he scanned the hall.

There, to the left, a darker shadow. He flicked an explosive batarang from his belt at the shadow. The shadow dodged and the batarang embedded itself in the wall behind it. The red light in the center blinked twice before the weapon exploded. The force knocked Nightwing's attacker onto the floor and the light of the explosion revealed a man with a utility belt full of knives.

Nightwing ran at the man, dodging two more knives as he did so. The man tried to get to his feet before Nightwing reached him, but only managed to get halfway up. Nightwing delivered a kick to his midsection, knocking the man back down. Reaching into his belt, Nightwing grabbed one of his short fighting staffs and brought it down onto the top of the man's head, rendering him unconscious.

Replacing the staff, he hurried back to the girl and picked her up again. He sprinted back into the main room of the warehouse, headed for the door he entered through.

He ducked behind a large box when he heard a gun being cocked, shielding the girl with his body as he waited for this new attacker to give his position away.

"Put that away!" Someone hissed. "If you hurt the girl, there will be hell to pay." So they _did_ need the girl for something.

"If she gets away our lives might as well be forfeit," a second voice argued.

Nightwing ducked between two boxes, hoping the two men were too engaged in their argument to notice him. The light of the moon showed him the outline of two men standing on the walkway hanging above the room. Whoever these goons were, they were either hired guns, or brand new to the League of Shadows. They were way too green to be Ra's skilled assassins. Either this girl wasn't that important, or the Shadows were confident that no one would come looking for her here.

Grabbing two more explosive batarangs, Nightwing judged the distance between himself and the walkways support pillars before letting them fly. The weapons detonated and the walkway tilted sideways. Both men yelled out and grabbed the rail for support. The man with the gun tried to aim for Nightwing, hitting the box above his head, and then the box to the side. The box to the side started sizzling and Nightwing realized that whatever was in that box was _not_ something that should be shot with a gun.

He lunged for the girl, scooping her up in his arms and running for the door. The men on the walkway yelled after him, but the screeching sound of metal told him the walkway was titling further, and their yells became more panicked.

By the time Nightwing reached the door, the box that had been shot was on fire and the sound gunpowder igniting filled the room. With a smirk Nightwing wondered how many of those boxes held gunpowder or worse. When Nightwing and the girl were half a block from the warehouse, he heard the sound of breaking glass and the rushing wind of a conflagration. He turned to see the entire building on fire, flames shooting out from the broken window. So far as distractions went, that one was pretty good.

The men couldn't chase after him now, they had to get rid of the evidence that they warehouse was a front for smuggling weapons before the police arrived. A pity this warehouse was situated on the pier. He was sure all the weapons would be dumped into the ocean or placed on a nearby ship, but he could always leave a friendly tip with the police to lead them right to the illegal contraband.

This was not how he expected the night to go, but it wasn't the worst turnout for a recon mission.

He slowed his pace when he got closer to his motorcycle, catching his breath. It wasn't easy to run with a teenage girl in your arms.

He stopped when he reached his ride, looking from the woman to his bike. How was this going to work? As he heard the sirens of fire trucks and police cars, he hurried over to the bike. No one would spot him in this alley, but he still wanted to be gone soon. He straddled the bike with the woman still in his arms, then situated her in front of him, using a piece of rope from his grappling gun to tie her to him.

"Sorry about this," he muttered. "It'll only be until I get us far enough away from here." Which also brought up the question of where he should take her. He knew nothing about her or what the League of Shadows wanted from her. Was she friend or foe?

Starting up his bike, he decided to take her to his hideout and wake her up there. He could always knock her out if she turned out to be hostile.

Nightwing drove quickly to the abandoned underground parking garage he, Batman, and Robin had turned into his base of operations. Once there, he laid the woman on a couch, for once grateful that Batgirl had insisted he have a comfy place for people to sit.

He blushed when he noticed the pale skin of her legs peeking through the robe and adjusted it to cover her completely. She must have been kidnapped from her house in the middle of the night, the poor woman.

He had just decided to get a sample of her blood to find out what kind of drug had been used on her when she began to stir. He stood there awkwardly as her eyes fluttered open, not knowing what he should say to her.

When the girl's eyes fully opened, she sat up with a gasp, her eyes flying all around the room before settling on Nightwing. She clutched the front of her robe and stared at Nightwing in fear. "Wh-who are you? Where am I?"

"Uh—I'm Nightwing. And this is—somewhere safe. I rescued you from the group that kidnapped you." He scratched the back of his head. "Sorry about all this, I'm sure this situation _is_ overwhelming."

Her brow furrowed in confusion over his emphasis about this being overwhelming, but then she titled her head as she studied him. "Why is your name Nightwing? And why are you wearing a mask?"

He paused, not sure how to answer her question. Surely that should be obvious. "I'm a superhero. Nightwing is just a codename, and the mask it to help protect my identity." Another pause. "You've never heard of Nightwing before?" Not that he was vain or anything, but he had been the sidekick of one of the most famous superheroes in the world for years.

She looked more confused. "A superhero?"

"Yeah, you know like Batman and Superman. I know, it's surprising that a place like Bludhaven would have its very own superhero. I haven't been here all that long."

She still looked blank.

"Let's try a different track," Nightwing suggested, sitting down in the chair across from the couch. Him standing over her probably wasn't helping the poor girl feel any more comfortable. "What have I said that's not making sense to you?"

"None of it," the girl said with a shake of her head. "I've never heard of a Batman or Superman. Or Bludhaven."

"Never heard of Bludhaven? Where did you get kidnapped from then?"

Her eyes turned wide and panicked. "I—I don't know. I can't remember."

"It's okay, it's okay," Nightwing said soothingly, holding his hands out in a 'slow down' motion. "The drug they sedated you with is probably just clouding your mind. Give it a couple minutes."

"No," the woman said with a shake of her head. "I can't remember anything."

"What's the last thing you _do_ remember?" Nightwing asked slowly. He should have checked her over for injuries. Maye she'd received a blow to her head and that was the source of her memory problem.

She put a hand to her head as she tried to remember and one of her fingers brushed against the jewel in her forehead. She frowned as she fingered the jewel, then winced when she tried to pry it off and nothing happened. "What is this?"

"I don't know, other than that it looks like a red jewel. I was going to ask you."

She looked frantically around the room before turning to Nightwing again and asking, "Do you have a mirror somewhere?"

"Yes," Nightwing said, standing up and reaching out a hand to help the girl up. She seemed even younger when she was awake and looking vulnerable and scared. He almost asked how old she was before realizing she probably didn't know the answer.

He took her to the bathroom and stood outside as she peered into the mirror. She paused when she saw her face. "I don't even recognize my own reflection," she murmured quietly before turning her attention the jewel. She tried prying it off again, and again winced in pain.

"What do you remember about being kidnapped?" Nightwing asked, leaning against the doorjamb and crossing his arms. "Do you know who did it? Or why?"

The girl slowly tore her attention from mirror and shook her head. "The only thing I remember is being locked in a room with bright lights. Someone carried me in there, but I don't remember their face." She shrugged helplessly. "And I don't know why anyone would want to kidnap me. Or at least, I can't remember why anyone would want to."

Nightwing's heart went out to the young woman. "Don't worry. We'll find out why they kidnapped you and we'll get your memories back. I promise."

"How?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.

Nightwing smiled and said, "I have some friends who I think might be able to help."

 **A/N:** As a side note, Raven will probably be a fair bit out of character. The poor girl does have amnesia, after all.


	4. The Team

**A/N:** Happy New Year! One of my New Year's resolutions is to make sure I finish this story!

 **Chapter 3: The Team**

"You lost our BATTERY?" Klarion exploded, his eyes burning red as he slammed his hands onto the table and glared at Ra's al Ghul. "One day, you had her for _one day_ and you lost her?! What use are you going to be in taking over the world when you can't even keep one little mortal girl locked up?"

"What I would like to know," Queen Bee began, "is why such a valuable asset wasn't being guarded by your best acolytes, Ra's. Perhaps you're assassins are losing their touch." Her eyes darkened. "Or maybe you're just not taking this as seriously as the rest of us. Opportunities like the one afforded to us by the trans-dimensional device don't come along every day, not even for an immortal such as yourself. "

"I did not wish to draw attention to my base of operations in Bludhaven by bringing in my top assassins," Ra's defended, looking down his nose at Queen Bee. "More scrutiny has been placed upon the whole city since the original Boy Wonder moved there. And besides," he turned to glare at Klarion, "someone claimed that the girl was not from our dimension, meaning that no one should have been looking for her in the first place."

Klarion sneered and stuck his tongue out. "Don't blame your carelessness on _me._ "

Ra's waved his hand in front of himself, as though shooing away a fly. "This setback is of little matter. Nightwing may have rescued the girl, but he knows nothing of our plans, and neither does the girl. Nightwing doesn't even realize that The Light is involved. All we need is to retrieve our battery before our plans for the trans-dimensional device are finalized."

"There is no need to place blame among ourselves," Savage added, standing from his seat at the head of the table. "Our plans have not been compromised, and let us not forget that we all have the same ultimate goal in mind. There is still time to find and retrieve the girl." He turned to look at Ra's al Ghul. "Since the girl was lost while in your custody, I believe we can all agree it is only fitting that you get her back."

Ra's gave a slight nod to show his acknowledgement. "Though I'm sure our Lord of Chaos would not mind telling us of the battery's abilities so my assassins may know what they're up against."

Klarion's face went blank for a moment before he shrugged. "Who knows? I sensed she had the power to travel between dimensions, so I grabbed her. I don't know what else she can do." The rest of the Light all turned to look at Klarion. "What?" He demanded. "All we need is magic that can pierce between dimensions, so that's what I was looking for. We're you hoping I'd run her through an obstacle course to learn about all her powers?"

He held his hand up and watched the light glinting along his black talons before tossing a taunting look at Ra's. "If you think your assassins aren't up to the challenge of retrieving the battery, just saw so, old geezer. Not everyone here can afford to wait around forever, you know."

Ra's hands curled into fists as he straightened in his chair. "My assassins will handle the situation with no problems. The battery will be back under our care soon enough."

"Why don't you try getting rid of Nightwing and some of his little friends while you're at it?" Klarion suggested. "You might as well do something to make up for your screw-up."

~.~

The girl, now dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt, clutched her left arm as she looked around the dirty alley uncertainly. "This is how we get to your friends?"

"It's the fastest way," Nightwing assured her. "Just trust me." He smiled and held out a gloved hand. She slowly placed her hand inside his. He pulled her behind an industrial garbage bin and she jumped when the wall in front of them spun outwards to reveal a portal.

"Override BZO," Nightwing announced, giving the override code that allowed him to bring along a person not recognized by the system, then he stepped inside, tugging the girl along with him.

She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, clutching Nightwing's hand as they were teleported to the Cave. The automatic announcer came on as Nightwing and the girl stepped out.

"Recognized, B01 plus authorized guest."

The girl's eyes widened as she took a few steps forward and gazed around the cave. "What is this place?"

"It is a safe house and base of operations for our team," a cool, collected voice answered. She startled and turned to see Aqualad. He gave her a nod before turning to Nightwing. "It is good to see you again, my friend. I have gathered the Team so we all may hear what you would like our help with."

"The whole team might be a bit much all at once," Nightwing said, scratching the back of his head and casting a sidelong look at the girl. He didn't want to overwhelm her. "I mostly wanted to talk with you and M'Gann for now, though I suppose she'd probably meet the rest of the Team eventually anyway."

He placed a hand on the girl's shoulder and gesturing towards Kaldur said, "This is my friend Aqualad. Another superhero. This is…the girl I found being held by the League of Shadows."

"It is good to meet you," Aqualad said, holding out a hand for the girl to shake. "Though I am sorry for the circumstances surrounding our introduction." She reached out and took his hand, her eyes drawn to the gills on his neck while his eyes went to the jewel on her forehead. "Please, come meet the rest of our Team."

Aqualad turned and led the way to the Cave's living room.

"Are you part of this team?" The girl asked, looking up at Nightwing.

"I was," Nightwing answered uncomfortably. "I went solo a few months ago." He paused, then hurried to add, "Not because anything is wrong with the Team. It's mostly made up of the former sidekicks of the Justice League, and is one of the best superhero teams in the world and…you don't remember who the Justice League is. Right. Well, _they_ are the _best_ team of superheroes to ever exist."

"Are you sure you're not biased?" She asked, peering at him with earnest eyes. "Your opinion on the matter might be clouded if your former mentor is a member of this Justice League."

Nightwing blinked in surprise before letting out a laugh. "You might be right," he admitted, "but the Justice League _is_ amazing, and has saved a lot of people."

Aqualad cleared his throat and Nightwing stopped his conversation with the girl to make introductions. "Meet the Team. This is Miss Martian, Superboy, Tigress, Beast Boy, Impulse, Blue Beetle, and Wonder girl. There are a few other members who aren't here right now; you'll probably meet them later."

The girl edged closer to Nightwing, looking uncertain. Nightwing felt for the poor girl. Meeting such a varied group of superheroes would be overwhelming for someone who already knew about superheroes. He couldn't imagine what this was like for someone who didn't even remember the existence of people like them. Hopefully, the Team would have her feeling welcome and whelmed soon enough.

"Miss Martian has psychic powers," Nightwing explained, pointing again to his green friend. "We're going to have her look inside your mind and see what she can find. If your memories are locked up as a result of some trauma you experienced when you were kidnapped, she'll find them."

"Why don't you sit over here?" Miss Martian invited, gesturing to the couch. The girl looked at Nightwing and he smiled reassuringly and nodded. She walked over and sat down, clasping her hands together in her lap. Miss Martian sat next to her, placing one hand on her own head, the other on the girl's head. "I'm going to look inside your mind. You might be able to feel me inside there, but don't be afraid. I might have to go deeper than I usually do to find your missing memories."

The girl gave a wide-eyed nod before her eyes took on a glazed look.

"You have no idea what the League of Shadows wants with this girl?" Aqualad asked Nightwing quietly.

Nightwing shook his head. "I didn't have time to do any investigating after I found her, and the warehouse blew up shortly after we got away. The Shadows were using it to smuggle weapons, and one of the guys chasing us shot up something he shouldn't have. It exploded and set off a chain reaction."

Aqualad stared at the girl, looking troubled. "I don't like this situation."

Both jumped when Miss Martian gasped and removed her hand from the girl's head.

"Well?" Tigress asked Miss Martian, who was panting from exertion. "What did you find?"

"Nothing," Miss Martian said, shaking her head with a confused and apologetic look on her face. "Nothing about who she is, what her life was like, or even who kidnapped her." She turned to look at the girl. "It like you have no memories. Other than waking up in Nightwing's base, you're just a blank slate."

"How is that possible?" The girl asked, clutching her hands more tightly together.

"Maybe they did something to her to take her memories away?" Beast Boy suggested.

"Psimon might be able to do something like that," Tigress added. "Though if he did, that would mean more than just the League of Shadows is interested in this girl."

"Who or what is the League of Shadows?" The girl asked.

"They're an organization of highly trained assassins," Nightwing explained. "Though you could also describe them as a terrorist group. They often act as catalysts to destroy and reform countries, or to start and end wars. They're leader wants to reshape the world so it better fits his image of what it should be like."

If possible, the girl became even paler. "What would an organization like that want with me?"

"That is what we must find out," Aqualad said. "If you do not mind, Miss, I would prefer that you stay here until you get your memories back and until we find out why the League of Shadows kidnapped you. We will keep you safe while we investigate what is going on."

The girl looked uncertain, but nodded while casting a worried glance over her shoulder at Nightwing.

"I know this must seem pretty scary," Nightwing said, laying a hand on her shoulder. "This would be hard enough with memories, but I promise you that we'll all look out for you. No one will hurt you while you're under our protection. We'll find out what happened to your memories and why the League of Shadows is after you."

"You'll still help then?" She asked. "Even though this isn't your team anymore?"

"Of course," he promised, squeezing her shoulder.

The room lapsed into silence until Beast Boy blurted out, "Rachel!"

"Rachel?" Miss Martian repeated, turning to Beast Boy with a confused look on her face.

"Yeah! She doesn't remember her name, so we can call her Rachel."

"You can't just give someone a name, Beast Boy," Miss Martian chastised. Superboy looked at her with raised eyebrows and she gave him a half smile and a shrug. "That time was different."

"No, it's okay," the girl said. "Rachel is fine. You have to call me something, and 'hey you' or 'hey amnesiac' don't have quite the same ring to them as Rachel does."

"Ha!" Beast Boy let out, looking pleased with himself. He walked over to Rachel and held out his hand. "Welcome to your temporary home, Rachel. I'm one of your new roommates."

 **A/N:** Can I just say that it is a struggle to write 'the girl' over and over. I kept almost typing 'Raven' instead. Also, all the members of the Team might not make much of (or any) an appearance in this fanfic, because that's a lot of characters to include.


	5. Blank Slate

**Chapter 4: Blank Slate**

Rachel woke up to the sound of her alarm clock and rolled over to shut it off. Rachel. The alarm clock. Borrowed things. Her name, the moniker the few people she knew in this new life used to refer to her was not really hers. The alarm clock, the bed, the room, the clothes she wore all used to belong to a superhero named Zatanna. Also things that were not hers.

She sat up and scrubbed her face, trying not to wallow in self-pity. Was it shallow for her to want something that truly belonged to her? Not owning a single thing made her feel lost, like she had no anchor to this life, and like she owed everything to the people around her. Which she did, but she didn't need a reminder of that every second of every day.

Dragging herself out of bed, she changed from the pajamas she wore to jeans and a lilac tank top. Whoever this Zatanna person was, she seemed to like bright colors.

After slipping on sandals (the only shoes of Zatanna's that fit her), Rachel made her way to the kitchen. She didn't have to get up early. It wasn't as though she had school or a job to get to, but she liked to help out as much as possible, and M'Gann got up this early to get breakfast ready for Superboy and Beast Boy.

"Morning Rachel," M'Gann greeted her with a smile. "Sleep okay last night?"

"Ah, yeah, thanks." She went straight for the cabinet holding the dishes, glancing into the griddle on top of the stove to see eggs and pancakes cooking. She grabbed four plates and took them to the table, returning for cups and then silverware.

One thing Rachel _had_ learned about herself, she had zero cooking skills. Anything she touched somehow ended up inedible one way or another. There was the steak she charred that Beast Boy and Superboy used as a Frisbee. Then there was the oatmeal that melded together into superglue. M'Gann had to use her powers to get the spoons back out. And who could forget the stir-fry that she poured half the bottle of sriracha sauce into? Beast Boy claimed his tongue still burned from it. As a result, Rachel's help with meals was regulated to set-up and cleanup.

"Is there anything else you need?" Rachel asked.

"Mmm, why don't you get the syrup out? And Beast Boy usually likes peanut butter and jam on his pancakes. The peanut butter and syrup are in that cupboard." Rachel followed the direction of M'Gann's finger and grabbed the items.

Superboy arrived as Rachel placed the toppings in the center of the table.

"Good morning, handsome," M'Gann said, flashing Superboy a smile.

Superboy returned the smile and placed a hand on M'Gann's hip for a moment as he passed her. Superboy reached the fridge at the same time as Rachel and they both stepped back. "Sorry," both mumbled.

"No," Superboy said, stepping back again. "You go ahead."

Rachel grabbed the jam and milk as Superboy stood by and stared at the items. "I guess I'll just go sit down until breakfast is ready."

Awkward. Awkward, awkward, awkward. The same as every other morning. When you first met someone, conversations were supposed to be about your past, things you did, and things you liked. Rachel didn't have any of those things. Or you could talk about your day. Rachel did nothing. Every day for the last two weeks. The only things she did were clean and watch Red Tornado tutor Beast Boy.

"Why do I have to get up so early if I'm cave schooled?" Beast Boy moaned, collapsing at the table as though the effort of walking into the kitchen took all his energy.

"Because this is when Superboy and I get up," M'Gann explained lightly. "And we eat breakfast as a family, so you need to get up early too."

"But our mission went so late last night!" Beast Boy protested. "Don't I at least get to sleep in after that?"

"None of the other members of the team do," Superboy pointed out, staring at Beast Boy over the coffee M'Gann just handed him.

"Everyone else also gets to go to a normal school," Beast Boy mumbled under his breath, still laying his head on the table.

M'Gann's eye flashed with regret. "I know Beast Boy, and I'm sorry for that. But at least your schedule is as much the same as theirs as possible. It's good for you to be on a set routine."

"Sure, whatever." He ate morosely after slathering his pancakes in peanut butter and strawberry jam. They ate silently and M'Gann and Superboy left first, putting the dishes in the sink for Rachel.

Rachel couldn't help but feel that there would be more mealtime conversation without her there.

Beast Boy's phone beeped while Rachel did the dishes and he perked up. "Sweet! There's an emergency in Metropolis and Red Tornado can't make it today." He sidled up to Rachel. "Sooo, wanna see the souvenir I got last night on the mission?"

"Souvenir?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah! I always bring back a souvenir from our missions. Kid Flash started the tradition and I kept it up when he left the Team," Beast Boy faltered before adding, "It's a really cool collection." Rachel wondered why he seemed upset when he mentioned Kid Flash.

Rachel looked down at her sudsy hands and the dishes in the sink. "Let me just rinse these off and I'll come with you."

"I'll help!" Beast Boy exclaimed, grabbing dishes and dunking them into the rinse water. Rachel smiled down at the young hero's enthusiasm. At least it wasn't as awkward to talk with Beast Boy. Something about his happy attitude seemed to put Rachel more at ease around him.

"All done!" Beast Boy said a few minutes later, grabbing Rachel's hand before she could dry off her arms. "Come on!" Rachel allowed herself to be pulled along, curious about what kind of souvenirs superheroes might gather.

Beast Boy stopped abruptly outside a room lined with shelves. "Taadaa!" He said, waving his arm. The shelves contained a mishmash of random items. An arrow. A red beret. A robot hand. A small freezer box. Multiple masks. Rachel wondered whether the masks belonged to former members of the Team or to supervillains the Team fought against.

"This is the one I got last night," Beast Boy said, proudly holding up what looked like a tranquilizer dart. "Kobra shot me with this, but then I transformed into an elephant so it had no effect. Pretty smart of me, huh?"

"Yes," Rachel admitted, trying to imagine the young man in front of her as a green elephant. It was hard to believe such a little guy could become so big, but he'd already demonstrated his ability to turn into small animals for Rachel.

"Do all these souvenirs have stories behind them?" Rachel asked.

"Of course!" Beast Boy cried. "I don't know them all, because a lot of them are from before I joined the team, but I know a lot of the stories. Are there any in particular you want to hear about?"

Rachel pointed to the red and white freezer box, than immediately regretted it when Beast Boy looked so sad. He gave a Rachel a small smile and said, "That held the heart of the Queen of Vlatava when she needed a heart transplant. Kid Flash carried it through a snow storm to get it to her."

Wanting to erase the melancholy look from his face, Rachel asked, "Which souvenir is your favorite?" Beast Boy grew animated again as he reached for an item on the shelf.

~.~

Eventually, Beast Boy ran out of souvenirs to tell Rachel stories about, though he promised to find out the stories behind the items he didn't know the history of. Rachel couldn't help but be amazed at the stories.

"Want to play Legions of Devils 4 now?" Beast Boy asked as they walked out of the souvenir room, citing his latest video game obsession.

"Uh, sure," Rachel said reluctantly, tucking her hair behind her ear. She didn't get the point of video games, but it wasn't like she had anything else to do.

"Why do you do what you do?" Rachel asked Beast Boy abruptly as they walked.

"Huh? Why do I do what?"

"Be a superhero," Rachel clarified. "You're so young and it's so dangerous. No one on the Team is very old. Why did you decide to dedicate your life to something that might get you killed?"

Beast Boy slowed down as he thought. "When I was eight, my home was under attack by a supervillain, Queen Bee. The Team came to save us. While they were there, M'Gann saved my life with her blood. That's how I got my powers." He smiled at the memory. "I thought they were so cool. I couldn't believe that these heroes from another continent would come to my country and help us out.

"When I started getting powers, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them." He shrugged. "I had all these great examples around me, so how I could I not want to follow their lead? I can protect people in a way that no one else can. I don't know if fate exists, but if it does, I got these powers so that I could help other people."

They walked in silence until Beast Boy stopped. Rachel turned to give him a questioning look. He raised his hand as though about to put it on Rachel's shoulder, then lowered it back down. "I know what it's like to lose everything," he said quietly. "It's terrifying and devastating and you don't know what to do next. You don't _want_ to do anything next, you just want everything to go back to the way it was before it all went wrong." He pasted on a bright smile. "But if you're lucky, you'll get everything back once your memories return. Then you can find your family and your old friends and get back to your old life."

~.~

 _Blank slate,_ Rachel thought as she sat on the beach outside the Cave later that day. That's what M'Gann had called her after going inside her mind. Did that mean Rachel didn't even have a personality? No likes and dislikes no good qualities or bad qualities? People were made up of their experiences, but Rachel didn't remember any, so what did that make her?

"Beast Boy said I'd find you out here," a voice called. Rachel turned to see a young man walking towards her. She had to do a double take before she realized it was Nightwing. He wore jeans, a t-shirt, a jacket, and dark glasses over his eyes. Rachel had seen Nightwing a few times over the past two weeks, but this was the first time he wore something other than his superhero costume.

"Costume in the wash?" Rachel asked, then flushed. Had that been an attempt at a joke?

Nightwing smiled. "Have to wash it sometime, though when the smell gets bad enough, it's a weapon itself against the bad guys. They give up and offer to take themselves to prison before I get too close just so they can escape from the smell."

Rachel smiled and Nightwing sat next to her, watching the push and pull of the waves. "Out here contemplating the meaning of life?"

"More the meaning of memories and life experiences," Rachel said. She began idly playing with the sand next to her. "I did some research on amnesia. Since I don't know what caused it, I can't do much self-diagnosis, but sometimes when people lose their memories, they don't ever come back. If I don't ever remember, if I don't have any previous experiences making up my character, than what am I?" The answer _an empty shell_ floated through her mind, but she kept that to herself. She didn't know why she was sharing so much with Nightwing other than that he was the one who saved her. That was probably why she felt most comfortable around him.

"You shouldn't be so pessimistic," Nightwing chastised. "I think our attitude has an effect on what happens in our lives. I believe that you'll get your memories back. Even if you're worried about it not happening, you can at least have faith that I believe. And as for what you are…you find out a little bit every day, don't you? You're making new memories now, and making choices every day about who you are and who you want to be."

He stood up and held a hand out to Rachel. "Though I imagine it's a little stifling having to make all your new life decisions locked up in the Cave. Why don't I take you out to dinner so you can get a little break?"


	6. Dinner Date

**Chapter 5: Dinner Date**

Rachel stared up at Nightwing in surprise. "Where do you want to go?"

Nightwing shrugged. "Since you don't remember what you like, why don't we go to one of my favorite places? There's this great Vietnamese restaurant in Gotham."

"Okay," Rachel agreed, giving Nightwing her hand and allowing him to pull her up. Staying all day in the Cave _was_ making her stir crazy, and it would be nice to have a real conversation rather than the stilted meal conversations she had with M'Gann and Superboy.

~.~

"So, what about sports?" Nightwing asked.

Rachel put down her iced tea and contemplated for a moment. "Basketball, football, softball, soccer. Those are the major ones, and opinions about what constitutes as sports differs depending on who you talk to, but there's also things like golf, ice skating, biking, running."

"Okay, so you remember about sports. You even remember that there's some controversy regarding what qualifies as a sport." Nightwing had decided to use this opportunity to find out what Rachel did and did not remember about the world since he found it so strange that Rachel knew nothing about superheroes.

"Who is the president of the United States?" Nightwing continued.

"No idea."

"That was a fast response."

"Beast Boy asked me to help him with his social studies homework earlier this week. I couldn't answer a single question."

They paused the conversation as a waitress brought out their food.

"Thanks," Nightwing said to the waitress, smiling at her as he picked up a pair of chopsticks. "So Rachel, any of these look familiar to you?"

"Hmm, those are spring rolls. That's a soup. That's some type of salad." Nightwing smiled at Rachel's basic descriptions of the dishes before them. "And that one has meat with rice."

"All technically correct," Nightwing admitted before pushing a second pair of chopsticks towards her. "Want to try eating with these?"

"I suppose," she agreed, prying the wooden sticks apart and watching how Nightwing held his. To her surprise, her fingers seemed to unconsciously adjust her grip and she picked up the food with no problem.

"Look at that!" Nightwing exclaimed, beaming. "You learned something new about yourself. You know how to eat with chopsticks."

"I'm sure all the rest of what I'm missing is just right around the corner," Rachel said dryly, but half-smiled nonetheless.

"Okay, so back to our previous topic, who's big in entertainment right now?"

Rachel gave him a blank look, then, "You mean like singers and actors?"

"Uh, yeah. Well, it looks like you're bad with names. Anything to do with people and you don't seem to remember, even people that might be considered general knowledge. Do you remember any figures from history?"

"Genghis Khan took over most of Asia. Alexander the Great took over the Middle East. The United States was founded when an army led by George Washington fought against the tyranny of King George III's reign."

"Nice!"

Rachel shook her head, amused at how Nightwing got so excited over such little things.

Nightwing continued to quiz Rachel on her knowledge of the world throughout dinner, and afterwards offered to talk her on a walk through a nearby park.

"So, do you have any questions about the world?" Nightwing asked as they strolled through the park. "Or about superheroes? Anything that you don't understand or want to know more about?"

Rachel hesitated and rubbed her bare arms to stave off the chill of the early evening. Nightwing slipped off his jacket and put it around Rachel's shoulders. She gratefully pulled it closer around herself and asked, "What makes a superhero a superhero? Is it just people with powers? I think I heard Superboy call them meta-humans."

Nightwing tucked his hands into his pockets and looked up at the sky. Rachel wondered if it was difficult for him to see in the gathering gloom with his dark sunglasses on. "That first question is difficult to answer, though the answer to the second one is easy; no. Plenty of superheroes don't have any powers. I don't have any powers. Tigress doesn't either, as well as a few other members of the Team. We're all highly trained in combat and defense. That's how we're able to keep up with the meta-humans."

He sighed and shrugged. "As for your first question, I'm sure the answer changes depending on who you ask. I would say that what makes a superhero is dedicated training and a desire to help and protect the people around you, first and foremost. It takes a lot more than that, but if you don't start out with those two things, you don't have anything."

"Why did you decide to become a superhero?" She asked, not knowing why she was so fixated on this question. "You don't have any powers, and I don't imagine that you have much of a life outside of fighting crime."

"There was something in my past that led to my becoming a superhero," Nightwing admitted reluctantly. "Something bad happened and I wanted justice for it, but more than that, I didn't want anyone else to go through what I went through. I was willing to give up a lot in my life to protect the world from the bad guys the police couldn't stop."

Nightwing glanced at his watch. "It's getting late, so I should probably take you back now. I've got a city to patrol, after all. But before that—" He stopped walking to pull something out of his pocket and Rachel turned to watch him. He pulled out a silver chain with a red gem dangling from the end. "I saw this today and it reminded me of the jewel on your forehead." He shrugged. "It made me think of you and I thought it might be a nice thing for you to have. I know a necklace doesn't make up for losing all your memories and being surrounded by strangers but—" He shrugged again.

"No, I like it," Rachel protested, taking the necklace and putting it on. Rachel smiled as she held the red gem in her hand. It did resemble the jewel on her forehead, but that wasn't what made her smile. A gift, something that belonged to _her._ It was only a necklace, but she finally owned _something._

~.~

Nightwing turned on his police scanner as he climbed to the top of the Queen's Consolidated building, which gave him the best view of Bludhaven and all its denizens. A smile came to his face as he remembered Rachel's face when he gave her the necklace. He bought it on a whim and considered not giving it to her, but he was glad he did.

He felt surprised at how much he enjoyed having dinner with and talking to Rachel. He only made the offer for dinner because he wanted to give her a chance to get out of the Cave.

He loved the way that she spoke at times. Her speech pattern made her seem well-read and deep. Hopefully, more of that would come out as Rachel became more comfortable with her new surroundings. At least, until they could get her memories back and get her home.

~.~

Rachel reluctantly dressed for bed that night. She hated nighttime most of all. Falling asleep in such an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people around was a struggle for her. And she kept hoping that she would dream of something from her past, something familiar that would help her remember at least one thing, but her nights were always dreamless.

She thought on Beast Boy's words from earlier as she lay down. Did she have friends and family out there who missed her? People who were wondering what happened to her and were anxiously waiting for her to return home?

~.~

 **Teen Titans Universe**

Cyborg did the dishes in silence, occasionally glancing up at the room. Beast Boy sat in front of the TV watching some robot cartoon, though Cyborg noticed that his green friend failed to laugh at any of the funny parts. Starfire sat on the corner of the couch, fiddling with some beaded strings. He thought it might have been one of the necklaces from the last Tamarian friendship day the Titans celebrated together. Nightwing was holed up in his office. Just another typical night at Titan Tower.

Cyborg sighed heavily as he looked past his friends to the world outside. Rain poured down in torrents, nearly obscuring his view of Jump City. He hoped no criminals acted up tonight; going out in that would be a beast.

Putting the last of the dishes away, he looked over at Beast Boy again and considered joining his friend in watching the cartoon. Four months ago he would have, but things were different now. He _should_ go sit with Beast Boy. It would help things return to normal around here, help them all get used it their new reality by doing simple things they'd always done.

With another sigh, Cyborg shook his head and walked away, opting to delve into the bowels of Titan Tower instead. The elevators let him off at his garage and he stepped out, pausing when he passed one of his work tables. A picture of him and Raven and the second model of the T-car leaned against the wall. When Raven helped him rebuild the car after Overload destroyed it, Cyborg insisted they take a picture to commemorate the completion of his new baby. Raven had a smear of oil across one cheek, but a wide grin covered her face. It was possibly the only picture the Titans had of Raven smiling.

A loud _BEEP!_ sounded as Cyborg's Titan Communicator went off and he jumped in surprise. Cursing being caught off guard, he pulled out his communicator and brought up the screen. "What? Oh, hey Bee, what can I do for you?"

The leader of Titans East gave Cyborg a raised eyebrows look before asking, "Has Nightwing looked into the rumors of a new H.I.V.E. academy starting up yet? Mas and Menos swear they saw H.I.V.E.'s old headmistress in Steel City, but I don't have time to be sending them off on some wild goose chase. I need something more concrete before I can let them investigate this."

"I don't know, Bee," Cyborg said, rubbing his head. "I would think Nightwing should have found something with all the time he spends holed up in his office, but he hasn't mentioned anything to me. Why don't you just call and ask him yourself?"

Bumblebee pursed her lips. "He's a little…hard to talk to these days."

"Hard to talk to or hard to face?" Cyborg asked.

Bumblebee winced. "I don't blame him for Raven's death, but I know that some of the other Titans do. And Nightwing knows it too. I think he might be under the impression that we _all_ feel that way to some degree or another. It's not true, but it's gotta be hard for him to have people who he helped train to become superheroes turn on him like that and call him a murderer. No one's done that outright to his face, have they?"

This time it was Cyborg's turn to wince. "Beast Boy did. He and Nightwing got into it right after everything went down. Beast Boy kept yelling that Nightwing should have found another way to stop Trigon and that friends don't ever give up on each other. Nightwing said that he didn't give up Raven, he just did what needed to be done for everyone's sake, including Raven's. Then Beast Boy called him a murderer and stormed out. I wondered if he'd come back after that fight, but he did. Eventually."

"Do you blame Nightwing?"

"I don't know," Cyborg said with a tired shake of his head. "I guess no matter your viewpoint you can't claim that Nightwing killed Raven since she's not _actually_ dead, though she may as well be. I guess a part of me does blame him. When Trigon appeared the first time we thought we couldn't beat him, but we somehow found a way. I can't help thinking that if only we had more time we could have found another way, but we didn't, so there's no point in hashing it all out again."

Bumblebee nodded in understanding. "How are the Titans West doing? Do you guys need another team member to replace Raven? There are plenty of honorary Titans floating around who I'm sure would be happy to join you guys."

"We're doing fine crime fighting wise. It's an adjustment, but we can handle it. And we can always call for back-up if we need it. My concern is the team dynamic. With Raven gone and all the tension with Nightwing…Maybe it's time to reorganize the Titan teams."

 **A/N:** Poor Titans…So, would people be interested in seeing more of the Titans while Raven is away, or is this one glimpse enough? I'm undecided on the matter currently.


	7. Interpreter

**A/N:** Someone mentioned that they felt it was too soon for Nightwing and 'Rachel' to go on a date, so I just wanted to make it clear that the date had no romantic connotation to it whatsoever. Nightwing was just being his normal kind self and wanted to do something nice for the poor amnesiac forced to live in a cave.

Also, thanks so much to all those who have favorited, followed, and reviewed this story! I hope that it doesn't disappoint.

 **Chapter 6: Interpreter**

Ra's al Ghul clasped his hands and peered out the window as the plane began its descendent. His outward appearance portrayed serenity and confidence.

"Well?" Klarion's voice demanded, coming from the screen across from Ra's al Ghul's seat. "When will the battery be in your hands again? It's been three weeks and you've yet to contact Savage with any news. She's not giving you any problems, is she?"

"I have the situation well in hand," Ra's replied, ignoring the chaos lord's insolent tone. "My assassins have not worked at their normal speed, so I am flying to Bludhaven in order to oversee the operation myself."

A dark smile crossed Klarion's face. "But shouldn't you have taken a personal interest in the situation to begin with?"

"I agree with Klarion," Brain's electronic voice added. "As Queen Bee has stated, you do not seem to be taking this situation as seriously as the rest of us."

Klarion sighed and shook his head. "Like I already told you, geezer, if you need help, just say so. If the Light finalizes its plan and we still don't have the battery thanks to your incompetence, there _will_ be consequences," he taunted.

"You don't have the authority to say such things _or_ to carry out such threats," Ra's retorted coldly. "The League of Shadows is not to be taken lightly and we _never_ miss a mark. The battery will be found and returned to the Light's care."

"For the sake of the Light and our plans, I hope you are right," Brain intoned.

Ra's clutched the arm rests of his chair as the screen went dark. The battery could not be in Bludhaven. His assassins had scoured the city, checking every scrap of security footage and every traffic light camera. No, Nightwing must have moved the girl elsewhere. Either with his old team, or with the Justice League. He needed to capture Nightwing and gain the information from the source itself.

~.~

Nightwing moved back further into the shadows as he watched the plane land in the private airport. He held his night vision binoculars up and watched as first Ubu, then Ra's al Ghul himself exited from the small aircraft.

He sighed, both expecting and dreading this new development. Ra's could only be here for one reason. Rachel. Nightwing still had no idea what the League of Shadows wanted the girl for, but he had certainly noticed the increase of Shadow agents infesting his city, no doubt searching for Rachel. Whatever the League of Shadows wanted Rachel for, it was big and important. That meant that no matter what he had to make sure she didn't fall into their hands.

~.~

"All right, team," Robin said, feeling nervous about leading this mission. Despite Nightwing's assurance that Robin was a natural born leader, having the attention of some of the older and more experienced members of the Team made him feel like a child playing at being an adult. "I have the audio recording that Blue Beetle and Impulse got in Bialya. I figured we should all listen to it together and see what we can find out."

"Wait!" Impulse exclaimed as Robin hit 'play', "we forgot to tell you that—" The recording started and…played something completely unintelligible. "It's not in English," Impulse finished lamely.

"Okay, so translate it, Blue Beetle," Superboy said, looking at the blue hero.

Blue Beetle looked awkwardly around the room. "Actually, I can't. I know the scarab is supposed to be programmed with all the languages of Earth, but I can't figure out what this one is." He shook his head. "The scarab can't translate any of these words. He claims the language is a made up series of codes since he can't understand it but…" Blue Beetle shrugged helplessly. "Sorry we didn't tell you earlier, but we couldn't get ahold of you last night and things were crazy this morning with the museum robbery and the…" Blue Beetle broke off the rest of his excuse and finished with, "Sorry."

Robin resisted the urge to smack his face, feeling like an idiot for playing a useless recording in front of the Team. Worse than that, it seemed like he may have sent two team members into the heart of Queen Bee's territory for nothing.

"Okay," Robin began, exhaling a calming sigh. "If we're going to figure out this code, the first thing we need to do is—" A sound at the door caught his attention and they all turned to see Rachel standing in the doorway.

She clasped her left arm, looking uncomfortable at the attention. "Sorry for interrupting, I didn't mean to eavesdrop. But I was walking by and…I think I know what the recording was saying. Would you play it again?"

Robin looked at Blue Beetle in shock. If Blue Beetle couldn't translate it, how could their amnesiac guest?

"Uh, okay," Robin finally said, slowly reaching his arm over and hitting 'play' again.

Rachel stared intently at the phone with narrowed eyes as it played the recording. "Are you sure we can trust Queen Bee?" Rachel said, then continued when the recording switched voices. " **Why would she betray us? She needs the gold we'll give her as much as we need the information she'll give us in return.** " The recording switched back to the first voice. "They say that she can control men. She could make us willingly, even happily, give her our gold for nothing in return. Perhaps even make us kill ourselves afterwards."

The Team stared at Rachel in awe, though the teen seemed oblivious to the attention. Based on what little information they had of the situation, Rachel's translation made sense.

" **Only fools fear women. We will meet Queen Bee's associate here tomorrow night and he will inform us of where the trade is to take place. Stop jumping at every wives' tell you hear. You are not worthy to belong to the Order of Lagash."**

The recording cut off and silence reigned. Finally, Superboy asked, "So, what language was that then? And what's the Order of Lagash?"

"I'm sorry, I…don't actually remember," Rachel said sheepishly with a shrug. "I know what they're saying, but I don't know what language it is."

"Can you write some words down?" Robin asked, the turned to Impulse. "Would you get her a paper and pen?"

"No problem," Impulse answered. "Back in a sec!" Rachel's hair blew backwards as Impulse ran past her and the next second she held a pen and paper in her hands. She stared down at them in surprise before walking over to the table where Robin had laid the phone to play the recording. She drew a few symbols that looked like hieroglyphics to Robin, than shrugged again. "That's the writing from the language I was speaking. At least, I think it is."

Robin held his phone over the paper and took a picture of the writing, running it through a search engine. He smiled when a match came up. "It's ancient Sumerian, from a civilization that used to be near Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq." Next Robin typed in Order of Lagash. No hits came up for an order but… "Sumer, the civilization that spoke Sumerian, had a first and second Dynasty of Lagash, Lagash being one of the main cities of Sumer. The first dynasty conquered neighboring regions and ruled through a policy of terror and violence. The second dynasty claimed the right to rule through his supposed divinity and promoted artistic development among his people."

"So is this Order of Lagash more like the first dynasty or the second?" Superboy asked.

"Maybe neither," Rachel said. Again, all eyes went to her and she hunched her shoulders in discomfort. "Robin said that Lagash was a city. The Order of Lagash might have ties to that ancient city, or to some historical aspect or event of the city, rather than the Lagash Dynasties."

"Good point," Robin praised. "We don't know anything about them and we shouldn't make assumptions until we can learn more."

"Question, why can Rachel speak ancient Sumerian?" Beast Boy asked, half raising his hand.

"I'm afraid no one in this room can answer that question," Robin pointed out dryly, then turned to Rachel. "But that doesn't change the fact that you are the only person we know who can speak this language. We need to stop the exchange of money and information between the Order of Lagash and Queen Bee, and it sounds like that exchange is happening tonight. I'm sorry to ask this, but would you be willing to come with us to act as translator, Rachel?"

Rachel's eyes widened and her mouth opened and closed in surprise, but no sound came out.

"We would put you in as little danger as we could possibly manage," Robin assured her. "I'll have someone assigned to protect you the whole time and we'll keep you away from the fighting. All I need is you in close proximity so you can translate for us."

Rachel put one hand to her forehead, shaking her head and holding the other hand out in a 'stop' gesture. "Before we decide anything, could someone please explain to me who Queen Bee is and why she needs to be stopped?"

The present members of the Team glanced at each other, wondering who should be the one to do the explaining. Robin stepped forward, deciding that he should do it since he was the one requesting Rachel's help. "Queen Bee is the dictator of a country called Bialya. She's a meta human with the power to influence others, mostly men. She uses that ability to expand her power and her country's territory. She probably plans to use the gold to finance an invasion of Qurac, a country she's had her eye on for years. Queen Bee is also a member of the Light, who you might've heard us mention before. The Light wants to shape the Earth into their vision of what it and humanity should look like, and their methods aren't very nice."

"She also killed my mom," Beast Boy added quietly. Rachel's head whipped around to face the green hero, shock and compassion in her eyes. "She didn't have any real reason to do it. My mom ran an animal reserve in a country bordering Bialya. When the Team came to stop Queen Bee from taking over our country, they stayed with my mom and me. Afterwards, Queen Bee killed my mom for helping them."

Beast Boy's hand curled into fists and he stared at the floor before lifting his eyes to look at Rachel. "She plays with other people's lives like she owns them, and she kills anyone who gets in her way. _Please_ help us stop her, Rachel. I promise I'll protect you." He turned to look at Robin. "You said that you'd give her a body guard for the mission. Could it be me?"

Robin glanced between Beast Boy and Rachel before nodding. "If Rachel is willing to come, then yes, it can be you."

Rachel closed her eyes and blew out a breath, when she opened her eyes, she looked calm and determined. "Yes. I'll come with you to Bialya and act as translator."

~.~

"You look great!" Beast Boy encouraged Rachel as M'Gann's bio-ship flew over Biayla.

Rachel looked down at herself skeptically. "I suppose." With such little notice of bringing Rachel on the mission, Impulse suggested dressing Rachel all in black with a black mask to hide her identity. Not that any of them knew her identity, but it would be terrible if somehow Queen Bee got a picture of Rachel and it got back to the League of Shadows. Then Ra's al Ghul would find out that the Team was hiding her.

Beast Boy had promised himself and Rachel that he would protect her. He didn't plan to let anyone endanger his new friend. They already had a strong bond forming. They both knew what it felt like to lose everything. Plus, Beast Boy _had_ given Rachel her new name. "And we can call you Black for a codename while we're on this mission," he suggested.

"Black?" Rachel repeated, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah, because you're dressed all in black," Beast Boy explained lamely, resisting the urge to smack his own forehead. Black? Seriously? He could totally come up with a better nickname than that for Rachel. His eyes traveled up to her forehead, just visible above the mask. "Or maybe Jewel, or Gem."

"Obsidian Jewel!" Impulse exclaimed, spinning around in his chair. "It sounds mysterious, doncha think?"

"It sounds long," Rachel replied. "And my jewel is red, anyway." She self-consciously touched the jewel, her eyes straining upward for a moment like she was trying to see it for herself.

"The Crimson Jewel?" Impulse suggested with a shrug.

"The Scarlet Gem!" Beast Boy jumped in.

Rachel smiled and rolled her eyes at their antics. Beast Boy grinned, happy they made Rachel feel more relaxed.

"We probably should call you something other than Rachel while on the mission," Robin admitted. "I know that Rachel isn't your real name, but we don't want to do anything on this mission that might lead someone to eventually connect you to the girl the League of Shadows is searching for. Do you like any of those codenames? Or maybe you want to come up with something else?"

"I guess Scarlet Gem works as well as any," Rachel gave in with a shrug.

"Yes!" Beast Boy pumped his arm into the air, elated at being the one to provide Rachel with a name once again. "Beast Boy knows where it's at!"

"We're here," M'Gann announced, and a solemn silence fell over the group as the ship landed.

"Okay," Robin began, "Impulse and Beast Boy will go with Rachel—I mean Scarlet Gem—to where the members of the Order of Lagash are supposed to rendezvous with Queen Bee's man." Robin focused on Rachel. "Miss Martian will create a psychic link between us all so you can tell us what the men are saying as they say it. The rest of us will stay on the bio-ship. As soon as we have the location for where the exchange is taking place, Impulse will run back and join us. After we stop the trade from taking place, we'll come back for Beast Boy and Scarlet Gem. Understood?"

Everyone nodded and Beast Boy undid his seatbelt, standing up and offering Rachel a reassuring smile. Rachel returned his smile with a calm look and a nod. As soon as they left the ship, Beast Boy transformed into a parakeet and landed on Rachel's shoulder, then Impulse picked them both up and raced to the location of the supposed meeting, hiding the three of them behind a boulder.

Luckily, Beast Boy was ideal for espionage missions since he could make himself small and unnoticeable. Impulse was chosen for his ability to quickly hide or flee with himself and Rachel if they happened to be spotted.

Minutes after they arrived, the men from the Order of Lagash appeared. When they began speaking, Rachel spoke inside M'Gann's mind meld.

" _The first man is still tentative about working with Queen Bee. He's telling his partner that they can still back out and that there's no guarantee that Queen Bee actually has the information they need."_ Rachel paused, but Beast Boy could guess the second man's response from the yelling he heard. _"The second man is adamant about obtaining the information for their cause. He told the first man that if he says one more word against this deal, he'll see him locked up as a traitor."_

Rachel stopped translating and they all waited until Queen Bee's man appeared. _"They're meeting near the border of Qurac in a town called Nena,"_ Rachel informed the Team. _"Queen Bee's associate said something about a river and a cave."_

" _Got it,"_ Robin replied back. _"Impulse, get back to the ship. Beast Boy and Scarlet Gem, you two stay there. We'll come back for you later."_

Impulse gave Beast Boy and Rachel a silent salute before disappearing from view and Beast Boy soon heard the footsteps of the three men walking away. He stayed in bird form ten more minutes before transforming back to his normal form. "We should probably still stay quiet," he whispered to Rachel. "Just in case." Rachel nodded and they both settled down to sit cross-legged in the dirt.

Beast Boy managed to stay serious and alert for at least fifteen minutes before growing bored. He drew a game of X's and O's in the dirt, but Rachel only looked at him in confusion. He started to demonstrate for her how the game was played, but when he looked up to make sure she was watching, he saw her looking behind him with wide eyes. Beast Boy tried to whirl around, preparing to shift into a tiger, but then everything went black.


	8. Fighter

**A/N:** Sorry there's only been one update per week. I jacked up my back and have to see the chiropractor multiple times a week, which really cuts into my writing time. Hopefully, I'll be able to go back to two updates after a month or so.

 **Chapter 7: Fighter**

Rachel jumped to her feet, backing up from the man in black. His clothes looked like a guard's uniform and Rachel assumed the gold pin on his shirt of a hive and a bee was meant to signify his loyalty to Queen Bee. The man stood at least six inches taller than Rachel and seemed made up solid muscle. He held a rifle in his hands, the butt of which he'd used to knock Beast Boy unconscious.

The man smiled cruelly down at Beast Boy. "We figured the Justice League's team of babies was here when Adnan saw a cloud of dust speed away from here, but who knew some of you would be stupid enough to stick around?"

Rachel wanted to tell the man to back off, but her throat froze up. What was she supposed to do? She didn't know if Miss Martian's mind meld was still in place, but even if it was, the Team was miles away from her and Beast Boy now.

The man pulled back his leg and kicked Beast Boy in the stomach, knocking the unconscious hero into the boulder.

"Stop!" Rachel cried, still standing uselessly a few yards away.

The man sneered and looked Rachel up and down. "Haven't seen you before. Is your power to stand back in fear?"

Rachel clenched her fists down at her side. "Do _not_ touch him again."

The man snorted in amusement. "And what're you gonna do about it?" He kicked Beast Boy again, this time in the face. When he pulled his leg back a third time, Rachel lunged for him. She hooked her leg behind his knee and pulled, dropping him to the ground. The moment he landed, she jammed her heel into his stomach and ripped the rifle out of his hands, throwing it far away from them.

Rachel backed up, shocked and breathing heavily. She had no idea where any of that came from.

"That was a mistake," the man growled out, climbing to his feet.

"No," Rachel replied. " _You_ made the mistake when you attacked my friend." The man went for Rachel, spreading his arms wide to grab her. She easily ducked around him and kicked his leg out from under him again. She jumped back, prepared to fight. If she didn't think about, if she just lived in the moment, the moves came naturally to her. "Weren't you just saying something about me being useless?"

The man half stood up before diving at Rachel and pinning her legs. Rachel lost her balance and fell over backwards, pin wheeling her arms in an attempt to stay upright. Once on the ground, she spread her arms wide before clapping them over her assailant's ears. The man cried out and loosened his grip. After pulling a leg free, Rachel smashed the heel of her boot into his face.

Rachel leapt to her feet and waited as the man stood, a look of rage on his face. This time when he came at her, Rachel let loose with fists and feet, kicking and punching him before he had time to react. The third time he fell, he didn't get up again.

Rachel stood over him, breathing heavily as she made sure he stayed down. She spun around when she remembered Beast Boy, only to find her friend staring at her wide eyed. "What. Was. That?"

"I—I don't know," Rachel admitted, looking down at the man again. Then she turned back to Beast Boy and shrugged. "Apparently, I know how to fight."

"Sweet!" Beast Boy exclaimed before getting up and going over to the man. Rachel watched in curiosity as Beast Boy went over to the man and undid the pin in his shirt. He held it up for her to see with a grin on his face. "Souvenir."

~.~

"The Scarlet Gem was amazing!" Beast Boy raved back at the Cave, throwing his arms in the air. "She took down Queen Bee's man like he was nothing! You guys should have seen it."

"And who is this Scarlet Gem?" A dark voice asked.

"Batman!" Beast Boy exclaimed in surprise, whirling to face the famous superhero. He edged closer to Rachel and stood protectively in front of her.

"Scarlet Gem is Rachel," Robin clarified. "At least, that's what we've been calling her. Nightwing found her locked up in a warehouse belonging to the League of Shadows in Bludhaven. She has amnesia, so we're taking care of her until either she gets her memories back or we find out what the League of Shadows wants with her." Robin resisted the urge to fidget. He had no need to feel nervous in front of his mentor. It wasn't like he'd done anything wrong, and even if Batman disproved of keeping Rachel here, the idea hadn't been Robin's in the first place.

"I asked Rachel to come with us on our mission to Biyala because she speaks Ancient Sumerian, the same language as the group we found hanging around Queen Bee lately. Thanks to Rachel, we found out that those men are part of an organization called the Order of Lagash and that they planned to exchange gold for information from Queen Bee. Rachel found the location where they exchange was taking place. We stopped Queen Bee's men from getting the gold, but there was a lot of confusion at the battle and both Queen Bee's men and the Order of Lagash got away."

"And how did you find out that Rachel speaks Ancient Sumerian?" Batman asked, narrowing his eyes at the girl.

"She overheard the recording that Blue Beetle and I made," Impulse explained. "She happened to be walking by and realized she knew what they were saying, so she offered to translate the whole thing for us."

Batman continued to scrutinize Rachel for a moment before turning to the rest of the Team. "We'll leave the matter of Rachel and the League of Shadows in your hands for now. As for this Order of Lagash, I want you to find out what information they wanted from Queen Bee as well as what this organization is up to and how much of a threat they pose. We knew nothing of this group's existence before they showed up in Biyala two weeks ago. I want information on them as soon as you can get it."

"Roger that!" Impulse exclaimed, giving Batman a salute. Robin winced at his teammate's laidback attitude. Couldn't he at least be a little more serious in front of Batman?

With a flap of his cape, Batman turned and left, having only come for an update on the Team's latest mission.

"So, Batman is a member of the Justice League, right?" Rachel asked.

"Not just a member," Blue Beetle said. "He's one of the _founding_ members. Everyone knows who Batman is, and everyone knows you don't mess with the Bat." He threw a side glance at his speedy friend, who completely missed the look Blue Beetle gave him.

Robin looked thoughtfully at Rachel, curious about this new development. She spoke a dead language and supposedly fought well. Could she have been a spy before losing her memories?

"Don't worry about tonight's mission, guys," Robin told the Team, afraid morale might be low after both the Order and Queen Bee's men escaped. Robin had been too eager to stop the exchange and had the Team attack before they properly scoped out the area. He should have guessed there would be men hiding in the nearby cave, though that tidbit was information to file away for future reference. Queen Bee and the Order of Lagash may have been working together, but they obviously didn't trust each other. "We still learned valuable information tonight and we'll start looking into the rest tomorrow."

With a wave goodnight, Robin walked away, pulling out his phone as he did so. He hit number two on his speed dial and held the phone up to his ear.

"What's up?" Dick asked after the third ring.

"We found out something new about your new friend tonight." Robin said in place of a greeting.

A pause, then, "What did you find out?"

"She's a pretty good fighter. At least, according to Beast Boy, she is."

A pause. "How would Beast Boy know that she's a good fighter? What happened?"

Robin paused this time, afraid that Dick might be upset that Robin brought Rachel on a mission without consulting him. Dick brought Rachel here to keep her safe, not so that they could put her in danger. "Well, it all started yesterday when we learned that she can speak Ancient Sumerian, which is the same language spoken by a group working with Queen Bee, or, at least, a group that wants information from Queen Bee. We needed a translator to find out where this group planned to make an exchange with Queen Bee's men, so I asked her to come along."

"Back up," Dick ordered. "And explain everything to me from the beginning."

~.~

Nightwing walked into the living room of the Cave the next evening to find Rachel and Beast Boy sitting on the couch playing a racing game.

"You have to hit the coins if you want to get a speed boost!" Beast Boy urged.

"I'm trying," Rachel said, leaning to the left as her car went around a curve, "but I can't hit the coins without slowing down to aim for them, which defeats the whole point of a speed boost."

Nightwing cleared his throat and Beast Boy titled his head back to look at Nightwing upside down. "Hey dude! Wanna play?"

"Actually, I was hoping to talk to Rachel."

Beast Boy pouted in disappointment, but paused the game. Rachel gently set her controller on the couch before walking over to Nightwing. "What is it?"

"Come with me," Nightwing said, jerking his head toward the door. He led the way to the Team's training area, currently sitting empty.

"Why are we here?" Rachel asked, looking around the room uncertainly.

"Robin told me about last night," Nightwing said, crossing his arms. "And I want to see what you can do."

"I don't know if I can show you," Rachel said, shaking her head. "I'm still not sure how I did what I did last night. I just wanted to protect Beast Boy and the rest somehow followed."

Nightwing walked to the center of the room and turned to face Rachel. "I've been training since before I was thirteen," he told Rachel. "After a period of time, it all becomes instinct. Reflex. I barely think of what I'm doing when I'm fighting. Yeah, I plan and I take countermeasures, but a lot of what I do comes naturally. I bet it's the same for you. All we need to do is get you in a situation where you need to react and the rest will 'somehow follow'."

Rachel stayed where she was, looking at Nightwing uncertainly.

"Come on," Nightwing cajoled with a smile, holding a hand out to Rachel. "Don't you trust me not to hurt you?"

Slowly, Rachel came forward until she stood a few steps away from Nightwing, her arms resting awkwardly by her side. "I won't throw the first punch," she warned, her body tense. "I don't know how. At least, not without looking like an idiot."

"Okay, I'm coming at you then," Nightwing said, before throwing a roundhouse kick. He kept his pace moderately slow, prepared to stop if Rachel didn't dodge or counter in time. Rachel merely took a big step back and Nightwing realized he was moving too slowly. He'd have to work harder if he truly wanted to test Rachel's abilities.

He threw a right hook at full speed and Rachel's left arm came up to block it as she jabbed her knee towards his chest. Nightwing grinned and jumped back, aiming a kick at her knees. She caught his leg, but he pulled away, jumping into a back handspring to put some distance between them. Rachel stood with her arms in front of her chest, her hands loosely curled into fists, the rest of her body in a classic fighting stance. Oh yeah, Nightwing thought, Rachel _definitely_ knew how to fight.

Nightwing rushed at Rachel, testing her defenses and egging her on and until she began her own attacks. Her fighting style reminded him of his own and their fight almost felt like a choreographed dance. Rachel was good, but something about all this bothered Nightwing in the back of his mind. How did Rachel have a fighting style that reminded Nightwing of his own?

"Good," Nightwing said, stopping the fight. They both stood there, catching their breath. The calm and controlled look that Rachel held during their sparring switched to one of awed surprise.

"I don't know where that comes from," she said with a shake of her head.

"Like I said, it's instinct. Some things are so integral to who we are, we don't need any memories for them."

Rachel looked thoughtfully at the wall behind Nightwing. "It would be nice if I could find more things like that."

"I'm sure you will," Nightwing reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It's getting late and I'd better head out on patrol. Goodnight, Rachel."

"Night, Nightwing."

Nightwing looked back to see Rachel still standing in the middle of the training room as he left.

When Nightwing got back to his hideout, he immediately pulled up the internet and started searching for superheroes with a jeweled forehead in the news. Then to be fair, he also looked up any supervillains, since he didn't know anything about who Rachel really was. He tried to focus his search on the Middle East since she spoke Ancient Sumerian, but, then again, she also spoke perfect English. Some stuff came up for both heroes and villains, but none looked anything even close to Rachel.

Nightwing leaned back in his chair and considered the screen. They needed to learn more about Rachel, and hopefully through that get some clue as to why the League of Shadows wanted her so badly. And thanks to Rachel's, or the Scarlet Gem's, help on the Team's last mission, Nightwing knew of at least one thing they could do to learn a little more about Rachel.


	9. The Louvre

**Chapter 8: The Louvre**

Rachel blinked at Nightwing in surprise when he showed up the next day with Blue Beetle.

"You're sure spending a lot of time around here lately, Nightwing," Beast Boy said. "Are you planning on rejoining the Team?"

"I don't think I'd say that," Nightwing said, giving Beast Boy a distracted smile. "I came here with Blue Beetle to find out if Rachel speaks any other languages. Ancient Sumerian seems like an off the wall language to know, so I'm betting she either learned it for a particular purpose, or she speaks more languages than just that and English."

"Cool!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "Can I listen in?"

"It probably won't be very entertaining," Blue Beetle warned, "but stick around if you want to."

Rachel frowned as she followed the boys to the dining table. Nightwing had a point about Ancient Sumerian being an odd language to know. Why _would_ she have bothered to learn a dead language?

Rachel sat across from Blue Beetle and they stared at each other awkwardly until Blue Beetle asked, "You ready?"

"Go for it," Rachel encouraged.

"All right, since you seem to like dead languages, putasne intelligis quæ ego loquor?"

"Latin," Rachel answered without hesitation.

"Huh, two dead languages. Maybe Rachel's a scholar?" Beast Boy suggested.

"She's pretty young to be a scholar," Nightwing replied.

"Well obviously she's a genius then," Beast Boy retorted. "Why else learn Latin and Ancient Sumerian?"

"Do you two mind?" Blue Beetle asked with a glare. Nightwing and Beast Boy quieted.

Blue Beetle than launched into a series of languages that sounded completely foreign and unfamiliar to Rachel.

"That last one sounded Egyptian," Rachel commented, "but I didn't actually understand anything you said."

Blue Beetle nodded. "Okay, we'll move on to modern languages then." He turned his head to the side and muttered, "I know you speak more languages than her, get over the fact that she speaks _one_ that you don't."

Rachel furrowed her brow in confusion, wondering if Blue Beetle was talking to himself. She glanced at Nightwing and Beast Boy, but neither of them seemed to find anything odd with Blue Beetle's behavior.

"That's obviously French," Rachel said about the next language, "but I don't speak it."

Rachel perked up when Blue Beetle asked, "Verstehst du was ich sage?"

"Ja!" She exclaimed. "Es ist Deutsche." She flushed, hunkering down a little in her chair, not sure why she got so excited upon recognizing another language.

"Is that German?" Beast Boy asked.

Blue Beetle nodded. "And in case you weren't counting, she's up to four languages now."

Blue Beetle kept going and of the dozens and dozens of languages that he tried, Rachel recognized two more. At that point, Beast Boy sat slumped in his chair, his head resting on the table. "Why are there so many languages?" He groaned. "They just keep going and going. Don't these people know that we all live on the same planet?"

"Can we stop yet?" Rachel asked Nightwing, feeling tired herself. "We've moved on to Asian languages now, but none of them sound remotely familiar. I suppose it's possible I speak more than six languages, but is it really imperative to know?"

"I guess not," Nightwing conceded. "Like Beast Boy said, maybe you're a scholar."

"That seems like the only occupation where a mix of German, Latin, Romanian, Ancient Sumerian, and Sanskrit would make sense," Rachel said, though she found the possibility unlikely. At first she was excited about the languages, having one more thing she knew about herself, but knowing all these languages brought up more questions rather than giving any answers about who Rachel might be.

The foursome heard the Cave security system announce, "Recognized, B02, Aqualad," before the young man walked into the kitchen. He surveyed the four of them and said, "Thieves have broken into the Louvre. Based on the footage, it appears to be the Order of Lagash. Time is of the essence here and no one else on the Team is around. Nightwing, will you accompany us?"

"Of course," Nightwing agreed with a nod.

Aqualad turned to Rachel. "Scarlet Gem may be of use to us as well. We do not know if the members of the Order of Lagash speak any language other than Ancient Sumerian. Would you be willing to come along again?"

Rachel stared at Aqualad in surprise, not expecting to be asked to go on another mission. "Yes," she said, finally snapping out of her surprise. "I'm happy to help in any way I can."

"Suit up then!" Beast Boy exclaimed, leaping from the table. Rachel followed Beast Boy, not wanting the two of them to be the ones holding up the mission. She felt surprised at her calm acceptance over going on another mission, but, given her fighting skills, maybe she did stuff like this all the time.

~.~

"We'll reach the Louvre in twenty minutes," Aqualad announced once they all sat on the bio ship. "Hopefully, the Order of Lagash will still be at the museum when we arrive."

"Pretty bold of them to attack one of the most famous museums in the world during the daytime," Nightwing commented. "Has anyone been hurt?"

"There are no guests at the museum today," Aqualad explained. "It's closed for a deep cleaning and for the exchange of an old exhibit for a traveling exhibit. That is undoubtedly why the Order chose today to make their move."

"Do we have any idea what they're after?" Blue Beetle asked.

"We will find out when we arrive," Aqualad replied.

Nightwing hacked the Louvre's security system when they reached the museum, ensuring that they wouldn't set off any fresh alarms and risk alerting the Order of Lagash to their presence.

The five youths raced through the halls, hoping to catch the Order. Rachel came to an abrupt stop when they reached a hall littered with fallen security guards. Rachel kneeled down next to the closest one and checked his pulse.

"Scarlet Gem, we must hurry!" Aqualad urged.

"These people are hurt," Rachel argued. "Doesn't that matter more than some artifact being stolen?"

"That depends on the artifact," Nightwing said. "We don't know what the Order is stealing, but it might be something that will lead to them hurting more people. That's why we need to prioritize stopping them over helping these guards right now. I know it's a hard choice, but we _will_ come back for them."

Rachel reluctantly stood and followed the guys, unable to stop her eyes from being drawn to the fallen men they passed. Rachel didn't know if she agreed with Nightwing, but her staying here wouldn't be of any help to the guards. It wasn't as though she knew first aid or anything.

Beast Boy gasped after he followed Aqualad into the entrance of the Ancient History exhibit. Rachel hurried to catch up and couldn't help gaping at the destruction around them. So many irreplaceable artifacts smashed to bits. It wasn't that Rachel thought things in and of themselves mattered, but to pointlessly destroy pieces of history, relics of cultures long past, wasn't something she could understand.

"It sounds like they're still here," Blue Beetle said, staring through the open doorway.

"Agreed," Aqualad said. "We'll proceed with caution from here."

They crept through the next room and the next, until they heard yelling loud and clear. Aqualad turned to look at Rachel.

"They're arguing about something," Rachel said. "One of them is saying that Queen Bee lied to them to get their gold. She promised them the tablet was here, but it's nowhere to be found."

"Maybe that's why they broke all those artifacts," Nightwing said. "Either under the principle of 'leave no stone unturned' in their search, or out of the frustration of not finding what they came for."

"It sounds like they've given up searching and are about to leave," Rachel warned.

"Then it is time for us to stop them," Aqualad declared, leading the way into the next room. Five men stood in room, each wearing dark robes with cloths covering their whole faces except for their eyes.

Beast Boy transformed into a leopard and jumped on top of the nearest man. Aqualad and Nightwing both ran off to engage two more in a fight. Next to her, Rachel watched as Blue Beetle's arm transformed into some kind of weapon. "Come and get it!" He egged on the fourth man. With only one man left, Rachel moved toward him, feeling foolish as she held her arms up in a fighting stance. She breathed deep to calm herself. She'd already done this twice. Once she started fighting, the knowledge she needed would come to her.

The man watched Rachel approach with indifferent eyes. His obvious dismissal of her as a threat created a spark of anger in her and she ran at him. She dropped low when she got close, shooting her leg out and sweeping the man's legs out from under him. He grunted as he fell and rolled away from her. Climbing to his knees, he glanced around the room at his companions before raising his hands and chanting. As he spoke, whirls of wind flew around the room, centering on the four members of the Order. Battle armor and weapons appeared on each man.

Rachel stopped in surprise. A meta-human? No, they couldn't do something like this, it had to be magic. "It's a spell!" Rachel cried out, too late to be useful. "He's invoking the power of war in the name of Ningirsu." The statement meant absolutely to Rachel, but she hoped one of her companions might know what that meant.

"He's _what_?" Blue Beetle asked. Or not. Blue Beetle brought up his arm, his battle armor protecting him from the downward swipe of his opponent's battle ax.

An animal cry sounded from across the room and Rachel whirled to see Beast Boy being attacked by a mace on a chain. The man swung the mace again and Beast Boy changed into a fox, darting away.

"Be careful, these weapons aren't normal," Aqualad warned, stopping his opponent's sword with his water sword.

"No kidding!" Nightwing called out, laying on the floor and desperately holding a scythe away from his neck with a batarang. "I knocked this guy's weapon clean out of his hands and it flew right back!"

Rachel's heart raced as she looked back at the sorcerer. If she took him out, would the conjured armor and weapons disappear? Rachel went for the sorcerer again, but refore she reached him, Blue Beetle's opponent slid in front of her, raising his battle ax high. Rachel cursed and dropped to the ground, rolling away.

She sprung to her feet and Blue Beetle stepped in front of her, his arm changing into a cannon. "Great idea to attack the man with the power, Scarlet Gem," Blue Beetle complimented, "though your execution could use a little work." Blue Beetle fired and a sound wave blasted towards the sorcerer. Battle ax man moved in front of him again, and his battle ax widened and stretched until it created a wall. The sound blast hit the wall and then stopped. When the ax shrunk back down, the sorcerer and battle ax man looked perfectly intact.

"Seriously?!" Blue Beetle demanded.

The sorcerer raised his arms and began chanting again. When he finished, Aqualad and Nightwing cried out. Rachel whirled to face them, but couldn't see any signs that they'd been hurt.

"What's wrong?" Blue Beetle asked, moving towards Nightwing. The sorcerer gave a command and all five men fled.

"Hey!" Blue Beetle yelled, holding out one hand towards the escaping Order members before turning to look at Aqualad. "Why aren't we chasing them?"

"I—I cannot see," Aqualad said, hold his arms out in front of him.

"I can't see either," Nightwing added grimly.

Beast Boy transformed back into a human and waved his hand in front of Nightwing's face. "Nothing at all?"

"No, but that doesn't mean I can't feel you," Nightwing said, knocking Beast Boy's hand away.

"What did he do?" Blue Beetle asked Rachel. "What spell did that guy use on Aqualad and Nightwing?"

"He invoked the power of disease in the name of Bau," Rachel answered, feeling useless. How could she have just stood there while the sorcerer attacked her companions? Maybe she couldn't have stopped him, but she could have at least tried. As soon as he started chanting, she should have gone for his throat and choked off his air to stop him from speaking.

"Disease?" Beast Boy asked nervously, backing up from Nightwing. "Are they contagious?"

"But why did the spell only affect Nightwing and Aqualad?" Blue Beetle questioned.

"Perhaps because the sorcerer wished to attack the two whom he viewed as leaders," Aqualad guessed. "That would cause the most confusion and allow them to escape, as they have done."

"I guess we should leave then," Blue Beetle said, looking worriedly at Aqualad. "I'll fly the bio ship to get us out of here."

They waited until paramedics arrived to take care of the injured guards. In the meantime, the museum curator reamed them out for not stopping all the destruction to the priceless artifacts and exhibits. When Blue Beetle threatened to break more stuff if he didn't lay off, the curator went off to mutter to himself in a corner.

~.~

"I think I'm starting to see," Nightwing said as they arrived back at the Cave. He squinted at the space in front of him. "I can make out light and dark. A little bit, anyway."

"My eyesight seems to be returning as well," Aqualad added.

"Thank goodness," Beast Boy sighed, sinking down into his chair. "That probably means whatever that sorcerer did is temporary and not contagious, right?"

"Let us hope so," Aqualad said. "We will have Red Tornado check our eyes when we arrive. After that, we need to investigate what tablet the Order of Lagash is searching for and who or what Ningirsu and Bau may be."


	10. Research

**Chapter 9: Research**

"It looks like Ningirsu was the patron god of the city Lagash," Nightwing said, looking down at his notes. "He was the god of hunting and war. What did you found out about Bau?"

"Bau was the wife of Ningirsu, according to Sumerian myth," Rachel answered. "She was the goddess of healing and the people called on her to relieve the pain and symptoms of people suffering from disease, but it was also said that she would poison those who trampled upon the rights of rulers and those who do wrong."

"Okay, so invoking the god of war gave them magic weapons and invoking the power of Bau blinded us with her poison?"

"Or maybe with disease?" Rachel suggested with a shrug. "Maybe the power of Bau can cause disease as well as heal it, or maybe the myths about her powers are wrong."

"Hmmm," Nightwing rubbed his chin as he thought. "What did you find out about tablets related to ancient Sumer?"

"A lot. Thousands of tablets were created by the Sumerians, over thirty thousand of them are currently in the British Museum. Some of the tablets talk about what the Sumerians believed to be the origin of Earth and humanity. A lot of them detail stories mirroring those found in the Bible, but a lot more tablets still haven't been translated. I don't see why the Order of Lagash would care about creation myths or versions of stories they could find elsewhere, but who knows what these guys really want."

Nightwing stretched his arms above his head and leaned back in his seat, staring up at the ceiling. "If you found those tablets in the British Museum so easily, I would think the Order would have to know about them too, so maybe what they want isn't there."

"I don't know," Rachel said. "With thirty thousand tablets, how could the Order know whether or not the one that they wanted was there? Maybe that's why they went to Queen Bee for information, they wanted to narrow down their search."

"The Order of Lagash seems pretty dedicated to me, I can't believe that they wouldn't—Nightwing sat upright in his chair abruptly.

"What is it?" Rachel asked in concern.

"Those guys seem fanatical about whatever it is they're searching for," Nightwing said. "I can't believe that they wouldn't follow every possible lead."

"So?" Rachel asked, frustrated with Nightwing for not just coming out and voicing his thought, then she realized what he meant. "You think the Order will attack the British Museum next."

"Let's go scope out the museum."

"Are you sure?" Rachel asked. "I know you said that you would finish helping the Team deal with the Order, but…"

"I don't make promises that I don't mean," Nightwing said with a smile. "And if I'm going to help, I'm not going to do it halfway. Aqualad asked the two of us to research everything that we found out about the Order at the Louvre, this is just part of doing that. I just need to change into civilian clothes, then I'll be ready."

~.~

An hour after explaining their plan to M'Gann and taking the bio ship, Rachel and Nightwing were in the ancient Sumer exhibit of the British Museum. Nightwing's sunglasses kept attracting the attention of the guards, so they made sure not to wander too close to any of the exhibits.

"Catch anything of interest yet?" Nightwing asked Rachel under his breath as she read through the Sumerian tablets on display.

"Not particularly," Rachel answered absentmindedly as she read. "I'm afraid if we want to find anything useful, we're going to have to hunt down the untranslated tablets, wherever they might be."

Nightwing grinned. "Already done. They're being stored in the basement of the museum in a temperature controlled room to preserve them while they're being translated."

Rachel turned to look at Nightwing in surprise. "When did you find that out?"

"When I changed into civilian clothing. I figured we might need to go looking for them."

"It looks like the doors to authorized areas have electronic locks on them. Can you break through those?"

Nightwing gave Rachel an offended look. "Do you really have so little faith in me? I had to get through a door opened by retina scans to get to you when you were imprisoned by the League of Shadows. Do you think something like an electronic lock could stop me?"

Rachel gave Nightwing an impressed look, wondering if she'd known how to pick locks before she lost her memory. Maybe she should try practicing back at the Cave.

"Let's go," Nightwing said, slipping his hands into his jean pockets and walking casually passed the security guard. Rachel walked beside Nightwing until they reached a door marked 'Authorized Access Only'. Rachel stood guard as Nightwing worked on the lock. Her heart raced as she checked left and right down the hall, trying _not_ to look like she and Nightwing were participating in criminal activities. In less than two minutes, Nightwing had the door open.

"See? No problem," Nightwing said as he gestured for Rachel to go through the door. They heard voices coming their way as soon as the door closed behind them. "Over here," Nightwing whispered, grabbing Rachel's arm and pulling her into the nearest room, which ended up being a cleaning closet.

Nightwing kept his voice low as he said, "According to the floor plan, two doors over will lead us to the basement. From there we want the third room on the right."

"You certainly do your homework," Rachel said dryly, wishing she had thought of all this.

She saw a flash of white in the dark room as Nightwing grinned. "You have to be prepared if you want to outsmart the bad guys." Putting a finger to his lips, Nightwing opened the door a crack and listened. When they didn't hear any talking, he peeked outside before waving for Rachel to follow him.

No one seemed to be around as they walked downstairs, but Rachel couldn't help but glance furtively about her as they moved. It seemed wrong to technically be committing a crime in order to potentially stop something worse from happening, but she doubted the British Museum would willingly allow the unknown 'superhero' Scarlet Gem to look at priceless ancient tablets in the name of stopping a villainous organization they had probably never heard of.

The basement felt several degrees cooler than upstairs, and when Nightwing unlocked the door housing the stone tablets, a rush of cold air blasted them. Rachel shivered and rubbed her arms as she followed Nightwing inside, though she forgot the cold when she got a look inside the room. Rows upon rows upon rows of broken stone tablets lined shelves all around the room. Several tablets lay on a table in the middle of the room, no doubt in the middle of attempted translations.

"This is going to take a while," Rachel stated.

"Yeah," Nightwing agreed, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry I can't do anything to help."

"Don't worry about it. I might as well do something to earn my keep at the Cave. And it's not like I've got anything better to spend my time on." Nightwing sat down on a stool as Rachel began reading. Rachel lost track of time as she immersed herself in the tablets, reading over ancient battles and lost myths. Rachel was so fascinated by the content she nearly forgot why they were there, but one thing kept coming up in the tablets, both the historical ones, and the ones relating to myths.

Rachel finally stepped back from the tablets and Nightwing looked over from whatever he was doing on his watch computer. "Find something?"

"Possibly. The tablets keep mentioning a Tablet of Destinies. As far as I can tell, the tablet rightfully belonged to the god Enlil, the father of Ningirsu. Supposedly, this tablet contained the details of fate and the future, and whoever possessed the tablet ruled the universe."

"So far as ancient Sumerian tablets of interest go, that one sounds pretty up there. If the Order of Lagash has magic and believes their invoking the power of gods, it stands to reason that they would believe in and be interested in a tablet like that."

"Do you think it really exists?" Rachel asked, turning to look at Nightwing.

Nightwing shrugged. "It could go either way. Plenty of things most people believe to be just myths really did or do exist, but then again, plenty of things are just myths. Either way, this is the best lead we have so far. Let's try researching the Tablet of Destinies and see what we can find. If we hit a dead end, we can always come back."

Rachel nodded, feeling it best to follow Nightwing's expertise on the matter. They crept back upstairs, managing to reenter the main part of the museum without being seen. Rachel had just breathed a sigh of relief when she felt Nightwing tense next to her. She glanced up at him before turning to follow the direction of his gaze.

Nightwing casually draped an arm across Rachel's shoulder and leaned down to murmur, "The man over by the statue of the horse was at the Louvre. He's a member of the Order of Lagash."

"Are you sure?" Rachel asked quietly.

Nightwing gave the barest of nods. "Trust me, you don't forget the eyes of the man trying to cut your head off with a scythe."

"He must be searching for whatever tablet the Order is after."

"Probably," Nightwing agreed. "I bet the Order sent him here to scope out the museum before they tear it apart for nothing like they did with the Louvre." Nightwing's arm tightened when the man turned and left the exhibit. "Let's follow him." Nightwing removed his arm and took a few steps before stopping and looking down at Rachel. "Let's change into costume first. I don't want him to get a look at your face and risk him possibly recognizing you later."

~.~

Rachel and Nightwing trailed the man for blocks, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Rachel needed Nightwing's help, but whatever she'd been doing before she lost her memory had left her in excellent shape and she kept up well enough. When the man reached a secluded alley, Nightwing slid down a fire escape with Rachel following along more slowly.

"Remember me?" Nightwing asked, pulling out his staffs. The man glanced between the Nightwing, Rachel, and the staffs as he backed up to the end of the alley. "We have some questions for you."

The man muttered back in ancient Sumerian that he didn't speak barbaric tongues. Nightwing paused for a moment, then asked, "I have no idea what he said, but would you mind doing the talking, Scarlet Gem?"

"We know what you're after now," Rachel bluffed in ancient Sumerian, hoping to verify what she learned from the tablets.

The man snorted. "You may know our sacred tongue, but you do not know our secrets, Barbarian. Even if you do learn of our plans, you'll never stop us."

"Oh?" Rachel asked, raising her eyebrows. "Not even if we find the Tablet of Destinies first?"

The man froze, enraged shock covering his face before he took a step forward and shook his fist at her. "Ningirsu and Bau will crush you for interfering!"

Rachel's brow furrowed in confusion. Did the Order of Lagash believe the ancient Sumerian gods were real?

The man reigned in his temper with a deep breath and shook his head. "You do not have the power or the knowledge to stop us, and you _will_ be destroyed in the end. You are nothing but children playing at being superheroes. Now back off or I'll scream," he warned. "You have no proof of me committing any crimes and it would not look very good for vigilantes to be harassing an innocent man, would it? Particularly in a foreign country."

Rachel relayed the man's words to Nightwing and Nightwing sighed. "He's got a point. The only thing we have on him is my word that he broke into the Louvre, but the cameras won't show anything but a covered face. Did you learn anything?"

"More than what we knew before."

"Good," Nightwing said with a nod, moving to the side of the alley. The Order member rushed passed them, bumping into Nightwing as he did so. Nightwing watched him go with narrowed eyes, clearly bothered over letting the man run away. He turned back to Rachel and asked, "What did you learn?"

"I confirmed that the Order of Lagash is looking for the Tablet of Destinies. Now we just need to find out if they actually exist or not. Also, he claimed that Bau and Ningirsu would crush us for interfering. He spoke like the gods were real beings."

"Hmm," Nightwing pondered, rubbing his chin. "I wonder if the gods of Sumer do exist. We should ask Wonder Girl to look into it."

~.~

Black Spider stared down at Nightwing and his companion, his dark grin hid behind his mask. He took out his phone and dialed. "Yes?" A cool voice answered.

"I found the girl," Black Spider gloated. "She's dressed as a superhero, but that red gem of hers is unmistakable. She's currently running around with Nightwing in Britain. Do you want me to grab her?"

"What is she doing in Britain with Nightwing?" Ra's al Ghul questioned.

Black Spider watched the pair thoughtfully as they left the alley together. "They just finished cornering a member of the Order of Lagash. She must be helping the Team. Klarion didn't tell us that she was a superhero." He drummed his fingers impatiently on his thigh as he waited for orders.

"Don't grab the girl yet," Ra's said. "Nightwing will be too focused on protecting her with nothing else to distract him. I don't want them knowing that we're aware she's a superhero working with the Team if you fail." Black Spider bristled at the word _if._ "We'll monitor the Order of Lagash instead. The girl will certainly make another appearance around them. It will be easier to capture her while her new companions are focused on a mission rather than on her."

~.~

 **Titan Universe**

"We need to talk, guys," Cyborg said, his heart heavy as he viewed the Titans West sitting around the kitchen table.

"What's up, Cyborg?" Nightwing asked, his leg bouncing impatiently. No doubt their leader was itching to get back to his study. The man spent all his time tracking the actions and whereabouts of criminals. Nightwing had always been focused on his duty as a superhero, but these days he had no life outside of it.

"I think it's time we talked about rearranging some of the Teen Titan teams," Cyborg declared.

Silence.

"What do you mean?" Beast Boy asked, clenching his fist on the table. "Which teams?"

Cyborg looked Nightwing, Beast Boy, and Starfire in the eyes before saying, "Our team. We haven't been functioning the same since…You know. Our teamwork and effectiveness is suffering and it's not fair to the people of Jump City. Besides, it would be good to have some of us move around. We could give more training to some of the newer—"

"Are you kidding me?" Beast Boy burst out, standing up so fast he knocked his chair over. "We can't dissolve the Titans West!"

"That's not what I'm saying—" Cyborg began, but Beast Boy cut him off again.

"This is Raven's home! We can't just get rid of it because she's not here right now. What if she comes back someday? She's done the impossible before and maybe…maybe there's a way to bring her back." Beast Boy pulled at his hair in frustration. "Geez, we've been so stupid! Why didn't why didn't we think about that? We don't know anything about magic, but Jinx and Argent do. Maybe there's a way to bring her back."

Starfire looked hopefully between Beast Boy and Cyborg, then turned to Nightwing. "It is something we should look into, yes?"

Nightwing's bouncing leg stilled. "Yes," he declared, "it is. Raven wouldn't give up on any of us and we shouldn't give up on her." A slight, sad smile covered his face. "She has a tendency to get a little fatalistic sometimes and forget that there are other options."

"Awesome!" Beast Boy exclaimed, pumping his arms in the air and looking more excited than he had since Raven's disappearance.

"There's still the matter of our team dynamic," Cyborg said, bringing everyone's attention back to him. "We can't just ignore it and pretend like everything's okay."

Beast Boy looked at the ground and dug his hands into his pockets. He slowly lifted his eyes to Nightwing and said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have accused you of killing Raven." Beast Boy hunched his shoulders and continued. "I'm still not happy with what you did, but I'm sure that you and Raven decided it was the best thing to do. I—I couldn't have done it and I can't imagine how hard it was for you."

Cyborg held his breath as he watched his friends. Nightwing sat tense, staring down at the table and obviously not wanting to talk about this.

"Raven would not want her friends to fight," Starfire said, clasping her hands as tears fell down her face. "So we should stop and say sorry and forgive each other."

"You're right, Star," Nightwing said, putting a hand on Starfire's shoulder. "We're a team. We've had hard times in the past and gotten through them. We'll get through this too. Now, who's going to call Jinx and Argent?"

"Ah yeah!" Cyborg exclaimed, pumping one fist in the air. "Let's get this search party started!"

 **A/N:** Thanks so much to all those who review! I always get excited when I see reviews in my inbox and I like responding to them


	11. Ningirsu

**A/N:** Sorry for the late update! It's been a crazy weekend.

 **Chapter 10: Ningirsu**

Cassie smiled as her old mentor walked into the coffee shop.

"Cassie," Diana greeted with a smile, holding her arms out for a hug. Cassie stood up and wrapped her arms around the older woman. "It's been too long since I've seen you," Diana said, squeezing Cassie. "How are you and Tim doing?"

Cassie blushed at the reference to her boyfriend. "Good. Tim's been given more responsibility on the Team lately. He's really stressed about it, but I think that he's doing a great job. He was trained by the best, after all." Diana pursed her lips at the statement, considering it to almost be an indirect insult.

"I think you had a pretty good trainer as well."

"Of course!" Cassie exclaimed, eyes widening. "I wouldn't trade training under you for anything in the world. The day you agreed to train me was one of the happiest days of me life."

"I was only teasing you, Cassie," Diana said with a laugh. "You don't need to get so flustered. Now, what did you want to see me about?"

Cassie sat back down as she grew more serious. "Are there any gods in this world other than the Greek gods?"

"I know there are," Diana answered, "but I don't know a lot of specifics about most of them. What gods are you wanting to know about?"

Cassie leaned forward to prevent other customers from hearing her. "The Team is fighting a new organization called the Order of Lagash. A sorcerer working with the group called upon the power of Bau and Ningirsu to use magic. Ningirsu and Bau were gods worshiped by the ancient Sumerian civilization, and Lagash was an important city in ancient Sumer. The Team was wondering if the ancient Sumerian gods were actual beings."

"I don't like that sound of that," Diana said, a look of worry crossing her face, "though I don't believe I've ever heard of any gods of ancient Sumer. We should go to Themyscira and ask the gods themselves for their knowledge."

"Can you go now?" Cassie asked eagerly.

"I had a feeling you were calling me over something big, so I cleared my whole day for you," Diana said, her worried look easing into a smile.

~.~

"Do you think Athena will answer our plea?" Cassie asked as they walked up the steps to the goddess's temple.

"Athena has always been a friend to the Amazons," Diana responded. "We loyally worship her and heed her advice. I see no reason why she would not help us now."

Cassie hope Diana was right, but didn't say that out loud. It wasn't that she didn't believe Diana's heard, she'd just never summoned a god or goddess before. She always paid the rites to and prayed to them, as her mother taught her, but she had yet to speak to any of them face to face.

They reached the alter of the temple and Diana laid down their offering of laurel leaves and wine.

Cassie kneeled down beside Diana and peeked at her friend out of the corner of her eye. "Oh great goddess of wisdom and war," Diana began, "please accept our humble offering and grant us your knowledge."

Diana stopped and they waited. Cassie tried not to fidget and jumped when a brilliant white light glowed above the alter, the next moment, a fifteen foot tall woman stood before them in a white toga with gold accents. Cassie stared up at her in awe, having never seen anyone so beautiful in her life.

"My daughter Diana, my daughter Cassie," Athena said, looking down upon them, "what would you have of me?"

"We seek knowledge regarding the gods of ancient Sumer," Diana explained. "Were they true beings and do they still exist?"

Athena stared down at them with an unreadable look upon her face. "Why would you ask me of this?"

Diana and Cassie cast troubled looks at one another. "My team fought a sorcerer who called upon the names of some of these ancient gods," Cassie said. "We need to know more about this group and their power. That's why we've come to you."

"Did this magic work?" Athena questioned.

"Yes," Cassie said, remembering that Nightwing and Aqualad returned from their mission temporarily blind.

"This is not welcome news," Athena said with a shake of her head. "The Sumer gods, also worshipped by the corrupt Babylonians and the bloodthirsty Assyrians, were banished more than two thousand years ago. The Sumer gods were too cruel, too power hungry, for the rest of us to stand by and watch. They were far worse than of the gods of the Greek pantheon, so we banded together to lock them away. If this sorcerer you speak of was able to call upon of the power of any of the Sumer gods…I do not know what this means."

~.~

"Wonder Woman and I talked with Athena," Cassie told the Team later that day. "And it wasn't good news. Athena said that the gods of ancient Sumer _do_ exist, but they were banished over two thousand years ago by the other gods for their cruelty."

"If the Order of Lagash is relying upon the power of Ningirsu and Bau, maybe the Sumer gods aren't quite as banished as Athena seems to think," Rachel said, still trying to wrap her mind around the idea of Wonder Girl talking to a Greek goddess.

Before anyone else could comment, M'gann walked in, having left the meeting earlier to answer a call from her uncle. "Jon said that one of Queen Bee's military stations was attacked and that the damage matches what happened at the Louvre. The Justice League thinks the Order of Lagash were the attackers."

"Looks like the Order wanted revenge for Queen Bee lying to them about the tablet," Nightwing said.

"What's our next move?" Superboy asked. "We still don't know what the Order of Lagash is up to other than that they want the Tablet of Destinies."

Aqualad turned to look at Robin. "Well, Robin? You are still leading this mission. What would you have of us now?"

Robin gulped, but stood up straight. "I want to send Blue Beetle and Miss Martian to Ash Shatrah, Iraq, where the city of Lagash used to be. It's just a hunch, but I want M'gann and Blue Beetle to investigate the area and see if there's been any suspicious activity around there lately. M'gann, I want you to shape shift to look like one of the locals, and Blue Beetle will mentally translate the language for you so that no one suspects anything out of the ordinary. Blue Beetle, you'll have to go in a disguise other than your armor."

"Got it," Blue Beetle said with a nod.

"Everyone else can go home for now," Robin said. "We won't make our next move until we see what Blue Beetle and M'gann find out."

The Team began filing out and Rachel hurried to catch up with Nightwing. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" She asked.

"Sure, what's up?"

Rachel pulled Nightwing into the empty living room. "I think I might know where the Tablet of Destinies is, but I don't want to bring it up in front of everyone until I know for sure."

"Where do you think it is?" Nightwing asked, lowering his voice.

"Back at the Louvre," Rachel said. Nightwing quirked one eyebrow up and Rachel continued. "There's an ancient Sumerian artifact in the Louvre called the Stele of Vultures. It's a stone monument celebrating the victory of the city of Lagash over a neighboring city-state. One side of the monument depicts a history of the battle, while the other side depicts a picture of Ningirsu and some supposedly mythological tale, but what if the Stele of Vultures _is_ the Tablet of Destinies? What better way to hide such an important artifact than to disguise it as a record?"

Nightwing looked intrigued. "But if the Order of Lagash is so obsessed with the Tablet of Destinies, wouldn't they know whether it was the Stele of Vultures monument?"

"Don't you remember how they smashed everything, even before they reached the Ancient History exhibit? Like you said, it seems like they were looking in every possible place for the Tablet, which gives you the idea that they don't really know what they're looking for."

"There's no harm in tracking down every lead," Nightwing admitted, "and Queen Bee _did_ tell the Order that they would find the Tablet at the Louvre. She may have lied to them, but she may also have been telling the truth. We'll check it out, but I think we should bring along a magic user to help our investigation. I know the perfect woman to ask for help."

~.~

"So, you were kidnapped by the League of Shadows but don't have any memory of it?" Zatanna asked Rachel as they moved through crowds of museum visitors.

"I don't have a memory of anything," Rachel replied. "The first thing I really have a memory of is waking up in Nightwing's hideout after he rescued me."

"Huh. And M'gann couldn't help you at all?"

Nightwing sighed. "You know, maybe this isn't the _best_ place to discuss this topic."

"Oh, it's fine," Zatanna brushed off. "You're so paranoid. Barely anyone here speaks English and no one is paying attention to us anyway." Zatanna turned back to Rachel and said, "He's always been this way. He's über careful about every step he makes. It's a wonder the man gets anything done with all the precautions he takes."

"I'm right here," Nightwing pointed out. "And no, M'gann wasn't able to help her. M'gann couldn't find any trace of Rachel having any memories at all."

"Blank slate," Rachel said, "that's what M'gann called my mind."

"Well, maybe there's something I could do to help," Zatanna offered. "I could at least look into it, though it would help if I knew what had been done to you."

"Unfortunately, that's a question only the League of Shadows can answer," Nightwing said quietly. "But thanks for the offer, Zatanna. It'd be awesome if you could help Rachel get her memories back."

"Have you remembered anything at all?" Zatanna asked as they came to the first exhibit destroyed by the Order of Lagash and stopped. The entire area was roped off and plastic curtains hung to obstruct visitor's views from the mess. They waited until the hall emptied before ducking under the rope and pushing past the curtain.

"No." Rachel answered. "I still don't remember anything from before I was kidnapped. The only things I've learned about myself are that I know how to fight, and I can speak six languages."

"What about that gem on your forehead?" Zatanna asked. "That's gotta mean something. Have you looked into it?"

"The only thing I found regarding head jewels is bindis from the Hindu culture. Although, the word bindi is Sanskrit, which is a language I speak, but I don't think my jewel is meant to be a bindi. Not that I would really know one way or the other."

They fell silent as they reached the Stele of Vultures. Rachel had read that the Stele of Vultures was originally carved out of a massive stone slab, but only seven fragments remained today. Rachel took her time studying the historical and mythological sides of the monument before nodding to herself. "I think I've got it. I believe there's a spell encrypted on separate parts of the stele that if said will reveal the Tablet of Destinies. Zatanna, I want you to repeat the words that I say to you, I don't think the spell will work for someone without magic."

Zatanna nodded. "Ready when you are." Rachel read off the tablet and Zatanna repeated the ancient Sumerian words, not stumbling once over the difficult pronunciation. As Zatanna finished the spell, the seven pieces of the monument rose into the air and glowed brightly before merging together. The words and pictures on it shifted and swirled, rearranging themselves entirely. When the tablet finally settled, Rachel stared at it in horror.

"What?" Nightwing prompted. "What does it say?"

"It…it details how to resurrect Ningirsu." She turned to look at Nightwing. "That must be what the Order of Lagash is planning."

 **A/N:** And because I'm sure many of you are thinking this, no, Rachel reading the words would not have activated the spell because not only does Raven have no memory of her powers, but she also has no access to them for reasons that shall later be revealed.


	12. The Order of Lagash

**A/N:** I keep forgetting to address this, but a reader pointed out that at the end of the YJ series Impulse changed his name to Kid Flash and I've been calling him Impulse this whole time. Since I've already been calling Bart by that codename and I think calling him Kid Flash is confusing/silly (Impulse matches his personality much better), I'm going to continue calling him that.

 **Chapter 11: Order of Lagash**

"The Order of Lagash is trying to unite the area that used to be Sumer, particularly the city of Lagash," Blue Beetle informed the Team. "And they're trying to rid the area of anyone who isn't a direct descendant of the old inhabitants of ancient Sumer." M'gann and Blue Beetle arrived back at the Cave shortly after Rachel, Nightwing, and Zatanna and Aqualad called a meeting with the Team for everyone to hear what both teams learned.

"And no one has noticed this going on?" Superboy asked.

"It's a volatile area," M'gann said with a helpless shrug. "It's easy for the Order to hide their actions as routine conflicts between different tribes."

"What we don't know is why it's so important to the Order to win back that territory," Blue Beetle said. "Sumer and Lagash haven't existed for a few thousand years. I don't know why these guys are so obsessed with an ancient civilization none of them have any real ties to."

"I might know," Rachel said. "Nightwing, Zatanna, and I found the Tablet of Destinies. It _was_ in the Louvre like Queen Bee said, just not in a form the Order was expecting. We don't know what all the Tablet can do, but what we did find out is that the Tablet details how to bring Ningirsu back to our realm, but Ningirsu can only be summoned to the physical plane in the same place where he was once worshipped."

"Meaning the ancient city of Lagash," Robin clarified and Rachel nodded.

"We still don't know all that they're planning," Nightwing said in frustration. "We know that they want to reclaim what they consider to be their ancestral lands and that they want to resurrect Ningirsu, but why? And do they plan to stop with him, or do they also plan to bring back Bau and the other Sumerian gods?"

"It doesn't matter what all they're planning," Zatanna said, looking around the room. "If we destroy the Tablet of Destinies, the Order won't be resurrecting anyone."

"There are a few problems with that plan," Superboy pointed out dryly, "starting with the fact that breaking an irreplaceable artifact of ancient history and cultural heritage inside a museum is illegal and would upset a whole lot of people."

"So?" Zatanna demanded. "Better than allowing a bloodthirsty god to be revived. Nightwing told me what Wonder Girl said about the Sumerian gods. What do you think you can do against a god that the Greek gods feared enough to banish?"

"Maybe we can set a trap at the Louvre and capture the Order," Rachel suggested, breaking the staring contest between Zatanna and Superboy.

"What did you have in mind?" Robin asked.

"M'gann could transform into one of Queen Bee's henchmen and go to the Order of Lagash, giving them some big story about how they're fools and the Stele of Vultures at the Louvre _is_ that Tablet of Destinies, so Queen Bee was true to her word and expects reparations for the damage the Order caused to her military base. Then we would lie in wait at the museum for them." Rachel turned to Zatanna. "Do you think you could overpower the Order of Lagash's magician? Without him, I don't think the Order would have stood much of a chance against the Team."

"Without ever having seen this guy in action, I can't say for sure," Zatanna admitted, "but there aren't that many magic users who are a true match for me. I'm willing to risk it. If things go south, we can always have destroying the Tablet as a backup plan."

The Team all looked to see what Aqualad and Robin thought of this plan. "I think it's a great idea," Robin said, he eyes sliding to Aqualad to see if the older hero disagreed.

"It is a good plan for drawing out the Order," Aqualad said, giving a nod to Rachel. "Good thinking, Scarlet Gem."

~.~

M'gann's heart fluttered nervously as she stalked through the streets of Shatrah, Iraq in the guise of Psimon. Luckily, if her meeting with the Order didn't go well, her powers were similar enough to Psimon's that she could fight her way out without giving herself away and the Order would be none the wiser that the Team was trying to trap them.

M'gann flittered through the minds of the people around her, hoping to encounter one that recognized Psimon. She and Blue Beetle verified that the Order of Lagash was operating in the area, but that wasn't a guarantee that M'gann would find any of them.

As the sun began to set, M'gann felt a jump of alarm at the sight of her in the mind of someone nearby. M'gann swung her head around, searching through the crowded market place for the owner of the thought. She spotted a figure draped in dark cloth trying to slink through the crowds and focused on his mind. There.

M'gann faded into the background before turning herself invisible and following the man, letting him think he'd lost Psimon. The man took a convoluted path through three neighborhoods before entering a long, squat building set half a mile away from the nearest dwelling. When M'gann entered the building behind him, she connected her mind with Rachel's, who sat a few miles off in the bio ship, for her to act as translator.

M'gann made herself visible as Psimon and the members gasped, quickly running to grab weapons. Speaking in ancient Sumerian, M'gann said, "Stop it, you fools. If I was here to kill you I would have done it _without_ revealing myself to you." She held her hands out to show they were empty, the universal sign of peace. The members froze and looked at each, some of them still in the process of reaching for the nearest weapon.

M'gann paced among them with an arrogant and irritated look. "Queen Bee made a deal with you and you betrayed her."

"She is the one who betrayed us!" One of the men yelled, straightening up. "We gave her the gold and she lied."

"She did not lie!" M'gann snapped, whirling to face the man. "You are just too stupid to see what is right in front of you. The Tablet of Destinies is the Sumerian monument the Stele of Vultures, which still resides in the Louvre since that's where _you_ left it."

Some of the men's eyes widened as they threw each other speculative looks. "Do you see now?" M'gann asked, folding her arms. "Queen Bee was true to her word and had hoped to do business with the Order of Lagash again in the future, but after you destroyed one of our military bases…" She trailed off and the men looked nervous again, some of them inching towards weapons again or tightening ahold of ones they already held. "You'd better work hard to get back in her good graces, Order, or my next visit to you won't be so pleasant."

With that, M'gann/Psimon stalked out of the building before turning invisible and flying back to the bio ship. On her way back, she sent a mental message to Rachel. _Let the Team know that the Order of Lagash took the bait. They're preparing to leave for the Louvre now._

~.~

"Well, Ra's al Ghul?" Brain asked. "Our plans are completed and we still do not have the battery. Do you know anything about her location?"

"I know where she is," Ra's said, his face the very picture of calm. It wasn't an exact lie. While he didn't know her specific location, he did know she was currently working with the Team as a superhero.

"Oh?" Vandal asked. "Would you care to enlighten the rest of us?"

Ra's paused when his phone buzzed. He looked down to see the caller and hid his smile. Perfect timing. "I apologize, I must take this call." He stood up from the table where half the Light was gathered and stepped into the hall.

"What news do you have?" He asked as he answered the phone.

"Psimon just paid a visit to the Order of Lagash," Black Spider told Ra's. "Which seems a little suspicious given that Psimon is supposed to be at the same meeting as you. Unless the psychic has learned to split himself into two, the Justice League babies are making their move."

"Excellent. Follow the Order and set a trap for the battery. While the miniature Justice League is involved in dealing with the Order, it should be no problem for you to grab her." Ra's knew that monitoring the Order after seeing the battery and Nightwing tailing them would pay off. He hung up the phone and walked back into the room. "Gentlemen, the battery will be in our hands by midnight tonight. I guarantee it."

~.~

The museum curator stood off in a corner, fuming as he glared at each member of the Team in turn as they set up their ambush. He seemed to think each of them were on the verge of bumbling into a priceless artifact, despite the fact that they had already removed most of the artifacts in the room and replaced them with cheap knockoffs.

"I'm surprised he agreed to our plan," Zatanna murmured to Rachel.

"I think he only agreed because of all the damage the Order of Lagash caused the last time they came here," Rachel told Zatanna. "They caused millions of dollars in damage. The curator may not like us, but he knows the police can't stop the Order, which makes us his best chance for protecting the museum. He was also pretty happy about finding the Stele of Vultures whole and in pristine condition. I think he might be hoping you can do that to other artifacts too."

Zatanna snorted. "Well I hope he's not holding his breath waiting. And he'd better get out of here soon. Blue Beetle and Robin are monitoring the skies and they said the Order is in a helicopter only thirty minutes away."

A few minutes later, Aqualad sent the curator and they all got into place to wait.

Rachel sat crouched next to Zatanna behind a plastic base displaying ancient pottery. The two sat together so Rachel could point out the sorcerer to Zatanna the moment he appeared. From her hiding place, she could see Blue Beetle and Robin to the left and Beast Boy curled up in the form of a green rat (in order to make himself harder to see) to the right. The others hid in places invisible from Rachel's spot.

Rachel and Zatanna both tensed when they heard the sound of soft footsteps. Rachel peered around the stand to watch as nine men clothed from head to foot walked into the room. Rachel narrowed her eyes as she studied the visible part of each man's face. There. Pointing and using M'gann's mental link, Rachel said, _"The third man back. He's the sorcerer."_

Zatanna gave one nod before springing up and shouting a spell, aiming for the third man back. The men in front of the sorcerer sprang in front of him to act as a shield as the sorcerer began casting a spell. The men who jumped to act as a shield were lifted up and slammed into a wall. Nightwing and Aqualad emerged from their hiding places by the wall to engage the men in battle when the dropped to the floor.

Zatanna ran forward to get closer to the sorcerer and Rachel followed her. Beast Boy trailed behind them, transforming into a tiger and letting out a ferocious roar. Rachel lunged at the man closest to the entryway to the exhibit, tackling him away from the sorcerer. They fell to the ground and wrestled, rolling out of the ancient Sumer exhibit and into the room displaying ancient Assyrian artifacts.

Rachel ground her teeth when she ended up on bottom, but she had enough leeway to bring one leg up and kick the man between the legs. He gave a shout and went limp, allowing Rachel to reverse their positions. Once on top, she punched the man's head, knocking it into the hard floor below. He blinked, clearly dazed and Rachel jumped to her feet to get more leverage. She needed to knock him unconscious before rejoining the others.

She pulled her leg back to deliver a kick to the man's temple when black clad arms appeared and jerked her back. One strong arm wrapped across both her arms and torso, pinning her to a chest. The other arm held a cloth up to her nose and mouth. Rachel bucked, trying to get loose and hoping to head butt her would be captor. The man held tight and she rammed her heel into the foot of the person holding her.

She heard a muffled curse before she was pushed to the ground, face first with the cloth still pressed to her face. She felt herself grow weaker as black spots danced in her vision.

~.~

Nightwing dodged the slash of a knife before hitting a pressure point in the man's arm. The man's grasp involuntarily loosened and Nightwing knocked the knife away. The sorcerer of the Order stood in the middle of the room, bound up in Zatanna's magic. Impulse and Blue Beetle stayed close to Zatanna, making sure none of the Order of Lagash harmed her.

Nightwing turned his attention back to the man in front of him, elbowing him in the face before sweeping out a foot and kicking the man's legs out from under him. The man fell backward, his head hitting the wall before he slid to the ground and stayed there. The Order of Lagash weren't bad fighters, but without the magic of their sorcerer, they were no match for the Team. Soon enough, all nine members were out of commission.

Aqualad called the Justice League, having already consulted with them on what to do about the Tablet of Destinies. Robin radioed the authorities, who had sat waiting with the curator and they soon swarmed the room. The Order members were handcuffed and a collar was put on the sorcerer to keep his powers in check. The police gave the Team a nod as they left.

Soon after, Wonder Woman and Superman appeared.

"What iz ze Justice League doing 'ere?" The curator asked in confusion, looking between the Team and the League members. "Ze problem 'as already been 'andled."

"We're taking the Stele of Vultures away," Wonder Woman announced, grabbing the large monument and easily lifting it.

"What!?" The curator exploded. "You cannot do zis! Zis iz ze property of ze Louvre! I will pursue zis in court if you steal from us!"

"The Stele of Vultures is also an artifact called the Tablet of Destinies," Superman explained, attempting to calm the irate curator. "It's too dangerous to leave something like this unprotected. We either have to take it and put it in safe keeping, or destroy it."

The curator's eyes widened in horror and Nightwing frowned as he looked around the Team, not seeing Scarlet Gem. The last time he saw her, she rolled into the other room fighting a member of the Order. Where did she end up? Nightwing walked into the other room and looked around, but didn't see anything. He remembered the first time they came here and her concern for the guards hurt by the Order. Maybe she went looking for hurt guards? The guards had been aware of the Team's plans for tonight and told to steer clear of certain hallways, but maybe Scarlet Gem wanted to be absolutely sure.

He walked down the same path they took the first time they came here. "Scarlet Gem?" He called, hoping for a response. None came. Confused, Nightwing glanced out the window to the left. He glanced away, then frowned and looked back again. What had that been? Moving closer to the window, Nightwing spotted a figure creeping up the building across from the Louvre. The figure moved slowly and seemed like it had something hung across its back. He frowned and looked closer. It was a pretty safe bet that anyone climbing up a building with something strung across their back was up to no good.

Nightwing tried to use the mental link, but with the mission over, M'gann had already dropped it. Instead, Nightwing called up Aqualad. "I see something suspicious across the street and I'm going to check it out. Also, I can't find Scarlet Gem. Have Impulse check out the whole museum for her, would you? I'll let you know what I find outside."


	13. New Plan

**A/N:** So, it's important to me for my stories to make sense, which sometimes leads to a long buildup. However, I'm really struggling with this fic for some reason and I'm hoping that once I get to the meet between the Titans and the Team it'll get easier. I have one more arc planned before that happens, but the chapters are getting to get shorter for at least a while. Sorry!

 **Chapter 12: New Plan**

Nightwing hurried out of the Louvre, but by the time he reached outside, the building across the street looked clear. Using his grappling gun, Nightwing hooked it on top of the adjacent building and hauled himself up. He carefully canvassed the rooftops for signs of anything living and just barely caught a glimpse of a figure disappearing down the side of a sloped roof. He took off in pursuit, his footsteps nearly silent as he ran and leapt across rooftops.

When he reached the rooftop where he saw the figure disappear, he slowed, creeping to the top of the slope and peering over. Seeing no one, he slid to the end of the roof and looked down. There, just reaching the street after a long climb down, stood a dark figure with another dark figure draped over its shoulder. A person, so this was probably a kidnapping.

Nightwing took a second to send a message to Aqualad that he would be a little while in getting back. He didn't want to take the time to call his friend and explain the situation, and he could handle a single kidnapper just fine on his own. Turning his attention back to the figure on the street, Nightwing followed him along the rooftops and he noticed the figure subtly looking half over his shoulder. Whoever this guy was, he knew he was being followed. Nightwing cursed silently and moved deeper into the shadows.

The kidnapper continued on, pretending he didn't know he was being followed until he paused under a street lamp and set his burden down, looking like he needed a break. Nightwing gasped silently when the light from the street lamp glinted off something on the unconscious victim's forehead. A red gem. Nightwing had found Scarlet Gem, which probably mean the black clad figure was a member from the League of Shadows. How did they know where to find Rachel? How did they figure out she was Scarlet Gem? Shaking these thoughts from his head, Nightwing leaped down to rescue his friend.

Up close he recognized the kidnapper as Black Spider. The assassin tutted at Nightwing as he tried to get between Black Spider and Rachel. "Foolish little bird, you should have stayed with the rest of your friends."

A second too late, Nightwing whirled to stop the attack he felt coming from behind. Before he got a good look at his attacker, all went black.

~.~

"You led Batman's prodigy to the Light's hideout?" Ubu asked in disbelief.

"I knew you'd be here to help stop him," Black Spider brushed off, hauling the battery over his shoulder again. "Now we've killed two birds with one stone. We've retrieved the battery, and caught one of those stupid brats to hand over to our master. You should be celebrating, not chastising me. Now grab the baby bird and follow me." Wrapping one arm around his prize to secure it, Black Spider descended a staircase and unlocked a thick, steel door. Ubu followed him until they reached a brightly lit room with what looked like a dentist's chair and a large machine hooked up to the back of it.

Black Spider tossed the girl on the floor and Ubu dropped Nightwing next to her. "Ivo!" Black Spider called. "We have a delivery for you."

Ivo entered the room from a side door and looked down at the battery with a greedy gleam in his eye. "Finally, everything is in place to set our interdimensional plans into motion. And what's this? A bonus? How generous of the Shadows to bring a present along as well. Go find some rope or something to tie our guest up with. I'm sure Nightwing would love to watch what we do to his new friend. _After_ one of you puts the battery in place."

Ubu lifted the girl and placed her in the chair, securing straps around her wrists and ankles before he and Black Spider left in search of something to restrain Nightwing with.

Ivo rubbed his hands gleefully as he looked at his trans-dimensional device, all ready to go. Since it was not yet midnight, the deadline for the battery's retrieval given by Ra's al Ghul, the rest of the Light hadn't arrived yet. But there was no harm in Ivo getting started, was there?

Ivo's fingers flew over his device as he coaxed it to life. He attached the receptors to the battery's forehead and waited for…nothing. Ivo frowned and checked the connections again. Then he tapped the power gauge on the device. Nothing. What was wrong here? Had Ra's assassins grabbed the wrong girl?

Ivo put his hands on his hips and glared at both the girl and device. Why wasn't it working? Ivo stormed off into his adjacent lab, muttering about connectors and broken batteries. His tech assistant watched him stomp about with surprised eyes. When Ivo left, he walked over to the room holding the trans-dimensional device. A young woman lay hooked up to the device, but nothing was happening. A young man lay on the floor a couple feet away. Since two people were brought in and the one hooked up wasn't powering the device, obviously Ivo must have hooked up the wrong one. The man was a genius that almost defied human understanding, but the scientist wasn't at his best when dealing with other living things. That was why he was assigned to help out the good professor as his assistant. He knew his way around technology well enough, but he was really hired to help out with the interpersonal side of things.

Unhooking the girl, the assistant dragged her off the chair before hauling up the muscular man, struggling under his weight. The young man began to wake up and started struggling as the assistant tightened the restraints. The assistant gave the hero a nervous look as he finished hooking the device to his captive. Growing up in Asia, he knew nothing of American superheroes other than the most famous of the Justice League, but surely the League of Shadows assassins wouldn't have left him alone with the battery if it was strong enough to break through these restraints.

The battery began struggling in earnest and the assistant quickly turned on the device. He stepped back to watch and frowned as sparks jumped along the cords connecting the device to the battery. When the spark reached the hero, he stopped struggling and let out a yell, his back arching under the onslaught of power from the device. The battery's eyes fluttered and he passed out, collapsing limply onto the chair.

The assistant turned his attention to the power gauge, nervously biting his lip. Was that supposed to happen? The power gauge barely twitched upward before jumping back down. The whole device started sparking and emitting smoke. He ran forward in a panic, unhooking the battery and examining the device from every angle. What went wrong?

~.~

Rachel lifted her head gingerly, wondering why it was pounding so badly. She looked around her with blurry eyes and saw what looked like a dentist's chair with a dark figure laying in it. Blinking a couple times to clear her vision, she saw a man in a white lab coat fiddling with a large machine behind the chair. In the chair lay an unconscious Nightwing.

Slowly, Rachel got to her feet, making sure she made no noise as she crept up behind the man in the lab coat. Bringing her hands together and interlocking her fingers, Rachel raised her hands high before bringing them down on the man's head. He fell forward, conking the temple of his head on a corner of the machine before slumping to the ground.

Rachel hurried over to Nightwing, quickly unclasping the restraints on his hands and ankles. Grabbing one of his arms, she hauled him over her shoulder and went for the nearest door. She really hoped this was the way out. Of course, having no idea where she was or how long she'd been unconscious for, they could be in a massive complex in some other country for all she knew.

The door led to a hallway and after checking both ways, she decided to go right. She moved as quickly as she could, occasionally readjusting Nightwing over her shoulder, trying to find the best angle to carry him.

When she came to a thick, steel door she was debating if she should try to open it when a slim figure in red and white appeared in front of her. Rachel jumped back in surprise, nearly dropping Nightwing at the sudden appearance of Impulse.

"Oh good, I found you guys!" Impulse said, talking so quickly Rachel almost couldn't understand him. "Aqualad got worried when Nightwing said he was checking something out and then never checked back in, and then we couldn't find you. Thank goodness for the tracking device on Nightwing's computer watch. We really should get you one of those. We wouldn't want to lose you again!"

"Er, right," Rachel said, not really following what the speedster was talking about. "Can you take Nightwing and get him out of here? I'm not sure what they did to him."

"Sure thing! Back in a flash." Impulse grabbed the taller man before disappearing. A moment later, he returned and whisked Rachel away. When her surrounding became clear again, Rachel saw the rest of the Team present for the mission standing around with Blue Beetle supporting an unconscious Nightwing.

"Who took you and Nightwing?" Aqualad asked.

Rachel shook her head. "I have no idea. The only person I saw was a man in white lab coat, who I knocked out. The last thing I remember is fighting a member of the Order of Lagash. I don't know how Nightwing and I got here."

"It could be dangerous to just go in without knowing the situation," Aqualad mused. "Though I believe it may be the League of Shadows we are dealing with. I cannot think of who else would have grabbed you while we were on a mission. No one else should know who you are, unless the kidnapper was someone from your past." Rachel shrugged helplessly, not having a response to give.

"Regardless, I want Beast Boy to escort you and Nightwing back to the ship. Impulse will case the building and report back what he finds."

"Roger that, Sir!" Impulse responded, giving Aqualad a salute before disappearing. Beast Boy pouted at being sent away, but transformed into a green horse and allowed Blue Beetle to place Nightwing on his back. Rachel followed along at Beast Boy's side and made sure Nightwing stayed on, nervously checking his pulse to make sure her friend was okay.

They just made it back to the bio ship when the frustrated voice of M'gann entered their minds. _"We're coming to join you guys._ _It looks like it_ was _the League of Shadows who kidnapped Scarlet Gem, but they saw us coming and set charges up around the base before blowing the whole place up. We didn't learn anything about what they were doing here or why they're so intent on kidnapping Scarlet Gem. We're hurrying back so we can get Nightwing medical attention."_

~.~

The assistant stood before the Light next to the broken device, his shoulders hunched in as though he were trying to make himself smaller. The moment Ubu spotted the Team on the security camera, he set the base up to self-destruct and grabbed the device and Ivo, leaving everyone else present to make their way out as they could. This operation was too important for them to risk it being compromised.

"What happened?" Vandal Savage demanded.

The assistant quaked at the man's tone. "Th-the girl didn't power the device!" He insisted. "Dr. Ivo had her hooked up to it, but the device was turned on and nothing happened, absolutely nothing! She couldn't have been the battery like the League of Shadows is claiming." He flinched at the glare Black Spider sent him, but continued on. "I thought that if the girl wasn't the battery, someone must have gotten confused and I hooked up the boy instead, but when I turned it on, the machine went haywire."

Klarion glared at Black Spider before turning his burning gaze on Ra's al Ghul. "You're incompetent assassins grabbed the wrong girl, and look at what it's cost us!" Klarion flung his hand at the device. Internal and external cables were fried and parts of the device were blackened. "It will take us at least weeks to fix it! It might even be faster to start all over again! You know how hard it was to get some of the parts we needed. If we have to steal them again, the Justice League might become suspicious of what we're up to!"

"I grabbed the girl with the gem!" Black Spider retorted. "Unless there is some other girl running around with a red gem stuck on her forehead, then I grabbed the right one. Maybe _you_ are mistaken about the girl's ability to act as a battery."

Klarion glared at him before turning his gaze on Ivo. "If the assassin grabbed the battery, then the trans-dimensional device was already broken or improperly put together before today."

"It was perfect before Nightwing was hooked up to it!" He whirled to look at Ubu and Black Spider. "And where were the two of you while all this was going on? You were supposed to return with rope, not dawdle all over the base taking a snack break!"

"Who's the one who left his idiot assistant all alone to sabotage the entire plan?" Black Spider demanded.

" _Enough_ ," Savage declared, silencing everyone. "Ivo and Klarion, the two of you will immediately go to work repairing the trans-dimensional device. In the meantime, Ra's, there's still an opportunity here for you to help salvage this debacle. I have a plan for getting the battery back into our plans permanently. First, I need you to make a call."

~.~

Batman slid along the dark alleyway, silent as he trailed the League of Shadows. He feared the organization was expanding their weapon trafficking from Bludhaven to Gotham. Or maybe Gotham was their final destination all along and they only used Bludhaven to throw the heroes off their scent.

He stopped once the docks were in view and watched as lackeys unloaded unmarked boxes from a freighter. Off to the side, he spotted two men dressed in the dark uniform of Ra's' elite assassins and turned up the sound amplifier in his ear to hear their conversation.

"Did the Paris mission go as planned?" One of them asked.

"Yes," his companion responded. "She performed perfectly and everything is going as Ra's al Ghul planned. It's only a matter of time before we have the information we need."

Batman frowned as he listened. The Team was in Paris tonight for a mission at the Louvre museum. Did the Paris mission the two assassins were discussing have anything to do with the Team? And who was 'she'?

~.~

 _Nightwing felt the danger coming from the sky. The force was unstoppable, though his friends still fought on all around him. If this kept going, not all of them were going to survive. If they couldn't stop this,_ none _of them were going to survive. Who knew how many civilians had already been hurt._

 _His concern over the situation switched to self-deprecation. He should have expected this! He should have had contingency plans in case something like this happened, but he thought all this was over. He got sloppy and complacent and now_ she _was paying the price._

 _Everything became disjointed and blurred, then_ she _stood in front of him. They both agreed there was no choice here. Only one thing would stop all this, though it was the very last thing Nightwing wanted to do. It might break him. Steeling himself, he raised his batarang and plunged it towards her heart._

Nightwing jerked awake, sitting up abruptly and looking around at the med bay around him. He sucked in deep gulps of breath as he clutched at his chest, sweat pouring down his face. His heart raced and he felt as though…he'd just lost his best friend. As though he'd just _killed_ his best friend. He rubbed one hand over his face, wiping off the sweat and wishing he could wipe away the despair of the dream as well. When he finally calmed down his first thoughts jumped to Rachel.

He leapt out of the bed and hurried to find a member of the Team to ask if she was all right. Outside the kitchen he heard her voice and hurried in to see her talking with Beast Boy and Robin. He sagged against the doorway, surprised at how relieved and comforted he felt to see her safe and sound.

~.~

 **Teen Titan Universe**

Nightwing narrowed his eyes at the report in front of him. Mad Mod just wouldn't give up, and was now making double the trouble with his idiot apprentice. He wondered how long this partnership could possibly last. How could Cracked Clark and Mad Mod stand to be around each other for more than ten minutes? The young man and the old man were each as annoying as the other. It had to be a case of birds of a feather flocking together.

A glance at the clock showed Nightwing it was two a.m. and he decided he should get to bed. He stood up and made it around his desk before what felt like a shock struck him and he collapsed to the floor.

 _Everything around him seemed blurry and disjointed, and it felt like he was looking out through someone else's eyes. This had to be a dream. Or possibly he was drugged or hallucinating. All those late nights were bound to catch up to him eventually. Cyborg kept warning him that the human mind could only go so long without a good night's sleep._

 _Nightwing felt his frustration mount as his eyes wouldn't do what he wanted them to do. He could see that they were in a large cave, though this cave had a kitchen and big screen TV. The view finally moved to the next room, and even in a dream, the sight still felt like a punch to his gut. A woman standing all in black with a black mask over her eyes. Raven._

Nightwing jolted awake and looked around in confusion to find himself lying on the floor of his office. Then he remembered feeling like he got shocked and falling down. He shook his head in an attempt to shake off his grogginess as he dragged himself to his feet. He definitely needed to get to sleep now, though he would have Cyborg check him out in the morning to make sure everything was okay.

He remembered the dream and felt a pang of sadness, though somehow, the dream gave him hope that they would find Raven. He made a mental note to call Jinx and Argent after he woke up and ask them how their research was going. 

**A/N:** Since some people are understandably getting impatient for this to happen, I wanted to warn you all that it will still be several chapters before Raven gets her memories back (I promise there's a reason for this!). On the bright side (hopefully), it means that this fic will be even longer.

I don't know if this helps to tide anyone over, but eventually the Titans and the Team (or at least part of the Team) will meet.


	14. New Team

**A/N:** Like I warned, there's going to be a couple shorter chapters for a little while.

Also, I read a fic where Argent is a mystic and I totally forgot that she wasn't actually one (a reviewer pointed that out), so I'll have a lame tie-in for how that works out in the next chapter.

 **Chapter 13: New Team**

The next day, Aqualad gathered the Team to congratulate everyone on a job well done in taking down the Order of Lagash, as well as to celebrate the successful completion of Robin's first time as mission leader for a big assignment.

When the celebration began winding down, Aqualad quieted down the group of heroes. "I have a few last things I would like to see before the end of the evening. We would not have accomplished all that we did without the aid of Scarlet Gem. Rachel, you provided tremendous help with discovering and foiling the plans of the Order of Lagash and you are obviously a valuable asset. You knows multiple languages—"

Off to the side Blue Beetle muttered, "Shut up, I know we know more languages." Aqualad ignored him and continued on.

"You're intelligent and a good fighter. What I'm getting at with all this, is that I've discussed this with the Team, and if you'd be interested after you get memories back and we've dealt with the League of Shadows, we'd all love for you to join the Team."

Rachel blinked in surprise as happiness bloomed inside her. She hadn't expected this, but it felt _right_ to work with a team to protect people who couldn't protect themselves. "I like helping the Team. It gives me purpose in life, especially with my not remembering anything right now. I would love to join the Team after all is said and done." She paused. "Is it all right if I keep helping the Team in the meantime until I get my memories back?"

"We'd be happy for the help," Aqualad replied.

"Yes!" Beast Boy exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air. "Welcome to the Team, Scarlet Gem!"

 **Three Months Later**

Rachel jumped back, dodging Poison Ivy's vine before slashing at it with her knife. Poison Ivy screeched when she made contact. "You wretched girl! You think that your life is worth more than a plant's?"

"Since you asked, yes!" Rachel answered emphatically, all the while slashing and getting closer and closer to the villainess. Out of the corner of her eye, Rachel spotted Nightwing taking on Joker while Beast Boy engaged Count Vertigo. She knew that further off, Superboy and M'gann were fighting Ultra-Humanite and Wotan.

Poison Ivy looked panicked once Rachel reached only a few feet away. She stumbled backwards and held up one hand, summoning a man eating plant. Rachel reared back for a moment before throwing herself to the ground and rolling. Once on the other side of the plant, she leapt to her feet. Covering her knife with its sheath, she shoved the blunt object into Poison Ivy's stomach.

The woman let out an "Oomf!" and while she was doubled over, Rachel brought the handle of the knife down on her head, knocking the woman unconscious. As Poison Ivy fell, the giant plant spread around the battle field began shriveling up and gathering towards its master.

A moment later, Superboy came running past Rachel while holding something tightly in his hand. "I've got what we came for, let's go!" Rachel turned to follow Superboy to the bio ship, Beast Boy running beside her as a green fox.

Once on board, M'gann jumped into the control seat and they lifted off.

"Let me see it," Nightwing said, holding his hand out to Superboy. Superboy passed the vial over and both Rachel and Beast Boy looked on with interest.

"What's that stuff called again?" Beast Boy asked.

"Kobra Venom," Nightwing answered darkly. "Though I don't know what the Injustice League would want with this drug."

"I don't think it's the Injustice League we need to worry about," Superboy said. "Whenever the Injustice League is up to anything big, it tends to be a cover for the Light. They're the ones we should be paying attention to right now."

"Hmm," Beast Boy said, glancing between Superboy and Nightwing before settling his gaze on Nightwing. "Well that's all well and good, but what I want to know is when Nightwing plans to officially rejoin the Team. How many missions have you helped us with now? Not to mention the fact that you keep coming to the Cave to train with Scarlet Gem."

Nightwing turned to look at Beast Boy. "It's my obligation to help out right now."

"Why?" Beast Boy asked, looking confused.

"Well, I'm the one that found and saved Scarlet Gem from the League of Shadows."

"And I'm the one who saved you from them last time," Rachel muttered, though Nightwing ignored her other than his lips twitching in a smile.

"I feel responsible for her because of that. I only plan to help out until Rachel regains her memories and we make sure she's safe from the League of Shadows."

Rachel shook her head at Nightwing. "While the Team appreciates the help you've given us, don't feel the need to stick around on my account. I promise you don't need to worry over me. Unless you just like sticking around so that I'm close by to rescue you. There was that incident with Killer Frost two weeks ago."

"Ohhh, burn!" Beast Boy yelled out. "She got you good!"

~.~

Nightwing was still smiling when he got home that night. While he did feel responsible for Rachel like he'd said, he had to admit that she didn't really need his protection. More than that, he was enjoying fighting with the Team again, and he and Rachel worked really well together in training and on the mission field. It almost felt like they'd been doing it for years.

As he sat down at his laptop to work on homework, his mind turned to the dreams he had occasionally. Ever since the League of Shadows kidnapped him and Rachel, he'd had strange dreams every now and again. Most of these dreams included a young woman who reminded him of Rachel. One dream had a little girl that looked like Rachel dressed all in white. She was alone and scared in a dark and rocky place. Another dream had the Rachel look alike being consumed by glowing red runes burned into her body.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Nightwing tried to focus on the criminal theory paper in front of him. He'd received an email that morning that the professor was changing the parameters of the assignment and he needed to change some stuff he'd already written.

He'd only been working for a few minutes when Beast Boy's question of Nightwing officially rejoining the Team ran through his mind again. He saw Beast Boy getting closer and closer to Rachel and it made him worried. Nightwing had to keep himself back because he couldn't forget the fact that Rachel might have another team out there. He hadn't found anything when he searched for heroes with a red gem, but maybe her team fought in some third world country or small little village where she speaks the language. Or maybe she covered her gem when she fought. With her temperament and skills, she had to of been doing something that helped others before she lost her memories.

What if Rachel wanted to leave the Team behind and return to her family or team when she got her memories back? The Team was already acting like Scarlet Gem was a full-fledged member, but none of them really knew how long she was going to stick around for.

Even with their limited knowledge of Rachel, all the Team seemed to have reached the conclusion that she must have been a good person despite some of the mysterious stuff surrounding her capture and loss of memories. She'd proved willing to put herself in danger in order to help others time and time again. Nightwing in particular couldn't help but feel that Rachel was worthy of the Team's trust.

If only they could figure out her past and know for sure if she would stick around or not.


	15. Girl's Day

**A/N:** I had insomnia last night (so lame), but it led to me getting a chapter ahead, so I figured I'd post it.

 **Chapter 14: Girl's Day**

Zatanna gave a little gasp and reached out to grab something. "This would be perfect, Rachel! Hold it up."

Rachel reluctantly turned towards Zatanna, afraid of what the young woman had grabbed now, but brightened when she saw a dark purple punk shirt. "This does look good," Rachel admitted, holding it up to her chest.

"Right?" Zatanna asked gleefully. "It matches your gem."

"We're getting it," M'gann declared, grabbing the shirt from Rachel and adding it to the pile in her arms.

Rachel looked at the growing pile in consternation and M'gann shook her head at Rachel's look. "Don't worry about the money, today is about having fun! I know you said you didn't want us to buy anything for you, but just consider it repayment for all the help you've given the Team. Besides, Zatanna and I have been needing a girls' day. Buying clothes for you is a great excuse to get out."

"Yeah," Zatanna agreed, bumping Rachel with her hip. "It can be hard to get away from all the crime fighting stuff. You feel guilty for doing normal stuff when there are always people out there who need saving. We _should_ be paying you for giving us a valid excuse to take a day off."

"Everyone needs to recharge their batteries at some point," Rachel agreed, though she still didn't like the idea of Zatanna and M'gann buying clothes for her. What she needed to do was find a job, though it was difficult to apply when so many places asked for a social security number and Rachel had none to give.

Zatanna and M'gann danced from topic to topic as they walked around with Rachel occasionally jumping in.

When they sat down for lunch in the food court, Zatanna's face turned serious and she leaned in closer to Rachel to make sure the patrons at the next table over didn't hear her. "I've been researching amnesia and missing memories. Some of the scenarios I found sound similar to your problem, except, M'gann should have been able to find your memories if any of the stuff I researched applied to you. I could still try some spells if you wanted, but I'm pretty sure they won't work since M'gann couldn't help you."

"I could try again," M'gann offered eagerly. "Brains and memories are funny things. Now that you've encountered things that your mind and body recognize, like fighting and the other languages you speak, maybe I'll find something this time."

"I'd like that," Rachel agreed, though inside she felt conflicted. The frustration over not knowing who she was, where she came from, or how she ended up here had begun to fade as Rachel filled her life with new things. She liked her life and feared how her memories might change the direction she was going in.

"Sooo, memories aside," M'gann began, giving Rachel a hopeful and excited look, "there's a dance at mine and Connor's college coming up. We've invited all the older members of the Team and you should totally come."

Rachel struggled to come up with a polite way of refusing. Finally all she could think to say was, "Why would I go?"

"I'm sure that if you came, Nightwing would come to," M'gann said.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Heaven forbid I go out into the world without proper protection where the League of Shadows might find me."

M'gann and Zatanna threw each other looks that clearly said Rachel was clueless. "What?" Rachel demanded, wondering if any words passed psychically between the two.

"Do you really think Nightwing would have been okay with us bringing you on missions and letting you join the Team if his only concern was protecting you from the League of Shadows?" M'gann asked. "He would have freaked and chewed us out for being reckless if his only interest in you was protecting you."

"He must have a thing for strong, dark-haired girls," Zatanna snickered.

Rachel sputtered a denial as she felt heat crawl up her cheeks. "Our relationship isn't like that at all. We don't really spend any time together outside of training and missions."

"I could peek inside his mind for you if you'd like," M'gann sang, "but I'm pretty sure I already know what I'll find."

"I don't think that's the most ethical way to get the confirmation you're hoping for," Rachel said dryly. "And how would I know you didn't plant those thoughts in his head, even by accident, since it's what you expect to find?"

"Ha!" Zatanna exclaimed. "So you do care!"

"No!" Rachel denied, feeling like she was fighting a losing battle. "I'm saying that I don't think there's a point to it."

"Let's at least get you a dress," M'gann insisted, standing up and gathering their trash onto the tray. "You don't want to miss out on any important life experiences do you? Maybe you'll discover that you're a great dancer! You always get excited when you find out something new about yourself. Well, new while you're missing your memories."

Rachel highly doubted the dancing thing, but didn't think she could win against the combined might of M'gann and Zatanna.

After some searching for a proper dress, she finally submitted to getting a short dark blue dress with spaghetti straps and small heeled blue boots.

M'gann clapped her hands excitedly as she stared at Rachel in the outfit. "This is going to be so much fun! Now we can get ready together and do each other's hair and make-up!"

Rachel threw M'gann a wide-eyed, panicked look. If she truly believed Rachel knew anything about hair or make-up, she was going to be sorely disappointed when the night of the dance arrived.

~.~

 **Teen Titan Universe**

"The spell should have worked!" Jinx exclaimed in frustration, slamming her hands down onto the table. "I followed every step in the spell to call a soul _exactly_ , but nothing happened! I _know_ I did everything right."

"Maybe Raven is too powerful for the spell to call?" Kid Flash suggested, rubbing his girlfriend's shoulders.

"She still should have at least felt the call and come to investigate it," Jinx argued, crossing her arms and glaring at the world.

"Maybe she's just too far away?" Beast Boy offered, trying his best to not look disappointed. Nightwing knew just how the green hero felt. They planned to call Raven's soul to them so they could ask Raven if she knew of anything the Titans could do to bring her back, but every attempt had ended in failure.

"Argent?" Nightwing asked. "Do you have any ideas?"

Argent shrugged helplessly. "'Fraid this isn't my area of expertise, mate. I got into the occult and magic when Raven figured out that I could augment my powers that way, but Jinx knows a lot more about magic than I do. Raven only taught me about animation and creation magic and my research hasn't turned up anything too promising."

Nightwing knew that Jinx and Argent were discouraged, and asking Argent for help on this to begin with had been a stretch, but he didn't know what to say to be helpful. He'd overheard Jinx telling Kid Flash that maybe Raven's soul had moved on to another plane. Since this topic was far outside of Nightwing's understanding, he had no idea how likely that scenario was. That explanation didn't feel right to him, though.

Since that night he'd passed out in his office, he'd occasionally had dreams of Raven. Sometimes of her fighting crime, and sometimes in that cave her first dreamed of her in. He and Raven had a connection with each other ever since she went inside his head years ago and he almost wondered if his dreams were actually visions of Raven. But if that was true and Raven did have her body back, why hadn't she contacted the Teen Titans?


	16. Venom

**Chapter 15: Venom**

"Another lab break-in by Kobra and his gang," Superboy said darkly, standing with his arms crossed as he watched the news report on the TV.

Rachel turned to see video coverage of a lab with a large chunk of the wall missing. "Did they steal the same chemicals as the previous times?" She asked.

"Yeah, they did," Blue Beetle reported. "The news channels aren't saying anything about it, but I accessed the police data base. These guys are stealing a ton of chemicals. Just how much Venom are they planning on making? Is there enough of a market for their drug to bother with stealing this much?"

"Either that or they have other plans for it," Superboy said before turning to Robin. "How's analyzing the Kobra Venom sample we got from the Injustice League going?"

Robin sighed and shook his head, not bothering to look up from his computer. "There's only so much I can learn from analyzing the different components of the new Kobra Venom drug. I can tell you that they've mutated it and that it should still make people stronger, but other than that I don't know. Without seeing this stuff in action, I think we've come as far as we can from just looking at the sample."

"What are you working on right now?" Wonder Girl asked, walking up behind Robin and looking over his shoulder at the computer.

"I'm trying to figure out where Kobra is stashing all these ingredients. The labs they've been hitting are all in pretty close proximity to each other, so it has to be somewhere close by. Some of the chemicals they've stolen emit a particular kind of radiation. I've hijacked a government drone to search for…there! I've got it!" Robin jumped up and looked at the heroes assembled. "I think I've found one of Kobra's hideouts or at least one of the places where they're storing ingredients. You all up for a little road trip?"

"Let's do it," M'gann said and the others nodded.

Robin, Wonder Girl, Superboy, M'gann, Blue Beetle, and Rachel all piled into the bio ship and took off. "Do we know who's most likely to be guarding these ingredients?" Rachel asked, knowing little about Kobra and those who worked for him.

"All you need to know about Kobra and his lackeys is to not get hit by them," Superboy said. "All of his cronies inject themselves with Venom, making them much stronger and more dangerous."

"They might be injecting themselves with this new Venom," M'gann warned. "We don't know exactly what to expect. They might be even stronger now."

"Or faster," Blue Beetle added.

The rest of the flight was spent in tense silence. When they arrived at an old warehouse, the Team laid low as M'gann used her powers to check inside. _"Kobra, Mammoth, and Shimmer are inside as well as Poison Ivy, Black Atom, and Atomic Skull."_

" _So not only are the Injustice League using the new Kobra Venom, they're working together with Kobra,"_ Robin said. _"But why? Are they helping with the new drug or are they plotting something else together?"_

" _I know of one way to find out,"_ Blue Beetle said. _"Are we going in or not?"_

Robin gave a firm nod. _"Let's go."_

The Team slid into position, Robin, Wonder Girl, and Blue Beetle at one door with Superboy, M'gann and Rachel at the other. On the count of three they rushed inside. The villains paused in various acts, surprised at the intrusion.

"Baby Justice League," Poison Ivy sneered before grasping a needle loaded with Kobra Venom and injecting herself. The villainess winced for a moment before her eyes began glowing green. The veins on her arms and legs stood out and the plants that shot out of the ground in front of her looked like they'd been pumped full of steroids.

"Destroy the chemicals!" Robin ordered. "That's our first priority!"

One of Poison Ivy's vines gripped Superboy and threw him into the wall. Rachel grimaced in sympathy. She wasn't sure her knives would work nearly as well against _these_ vines. Ducking low and gripping her knives anyway, Rachel charged the table being protected by Poison Ivy's plants.

Blue Beetle blasted a soundwave at the table and Mammoth jumped to intercept it, both saving the contents of the table and blocking Rachel's way. Off to the side, Shimmer slammed a slim laptop shut and ran for the door. Rachel cast a glance at the room before following. _"I'm tailing Shimmer,"_ she informed the Team through M'gann's psychic link. _"She grabbed a laptop and took off."_

" _Be careful!"_ Robin called after her.

~.~

Green Arrow hunched behind supplies as he monitored Count Vertigo. He didn't know what the Count was doing here, but he didn't plan to stop following the man until he found out.

Green Arrow narrowed his eyes when Shimmer appeared, something clutched in her hands. "Scarlet Gem is behind me," Shimmer said. "I'm taking her out." Shimmer placed her laptop down by Count Vertigo before whirling around.

Count Vertigo's hand flew out to catch the girl and pull her back. "She is not our enemy," he warned Shimmer quietly. "And she is not to be harmed. Is that understood?"

"Then what do you expect me to do?" Shimmer demanded.

The Count shrugged. "Do what must be done. We all have to make sacrifices to accomplish the greater good. If you need to fall for her to succeed, then so be it."

Shimmer growled and ripped her arm away from Count Vertigo. "Fine then."

She marched toward the door, but Count Vertigo stopped her again, holding out the laptop. "I believe you'll need this, my dear." Bearing her teeth, Shimmer walked back over and snatched the laptop before spinning on her heel and walking outside. He frowned as he went over Count Vertigo's and Shimmer's conversation in his head again. What in the world did it mean?

~.~

When Rachel returned to the Team, she found Mammoth and Poison Ivy unconscious and tied up. The rest of the villains had gotten away with part of their chemical store.

"I got the laptop," she said, holding it up. "And Shimmer is unconscious about half a mile away from here."

"Good work, Scarlet Gem," Robin complimented. "We'll pick up Shimmer and then have these guys hauled away to Belle Reve."

~.~

Back at the cave Robin worked on cracking the laptop's security codes.

"So we know that the Injustice League is plenty willing to use this new Kobra Venom," Wonder Girl said, "but is that their only involvement with the Cult of Kobra, or is the Injustice League working with Kobra on a bigger plot?"

Superboy let out a frustrated growl. "I'm telling you guys that this is probably another ploy by the Light to misdirect our attention while they accomplish something else."

"I think you're jumping at shadows, man," Blue Beetle argued. "Yeah, the Light is bad news and sneaky, but not everything involves them."

Superboy just shook his head. "You don't know the Light like I do."


	17. Dance

**Chapter 16: Dance**

"Your hair looks great, Rachel!" M'gann exclaimed.

"It's just a ponytail," Rachel deadpanned, staring at herself in the full-length mirror of her bedroom.

"Yeah, but you always wear your hair down," M'gann said, appearing behind Rachel in the mirror and putting her hands on Rachel's shoulders. "Isn't it fun to try something new?"

"I guess." Rachel admitted to herself that the boots and the dress looked good with her slim figure, but nothing would help her pasty skin tone.

"Have more enthusiasm!" M'gann said, shaking Rachel. "Tonight is going to be a blast! It'll be so nice to spend a night not thinking about the new Venom drug and the Injustice League." M'gann took a few steps back and gave a twirl, her knee-length green dress flowing outward. "Now, how do I look?"

"Good," Rachel said, then realized M'gann probably would have appreciated a more exuberant adjective. "The green goes really well with your hair." Complimenting was definitely not Rachel's specialty.

"I thought so too!" M'gann exclaimed. "Let's go tell Connor we're ready to go." M'gann paused when she passed Rachel's dresser and backed up. "What's this?" She asked, picking up the red jewel necklace Nightwing gave Rachel months ago.

"Oh—Just something I got a little while ago."

"You should wear it," M'gann urged, turning and holding the necklace up to Rachel's dress. "It looks great with your dress."

Obligingly, Rachel reached out and clasped the necklace around her neck.

M'gann put her hands on her hips and surveyed Rachel. "Honestly, you could at least look a little excited."

"I don't think that dances are my kind of thing. Particularly when I don't have a date."

"You have to do something for fun. You can't just train and be a superhero all that time. Memories or not, you need to live your life."

Rachel made a face and muttered, "Dedicating your life to the welfare of others _is_ a life."

M'gann just shook her head and linked her arm with Rachel's pulling her out of the room. Out in the living room, Beast Boy gave the two girls a thumbs up. "You both look great! Though I'd think you looked even better if you weren't leaving me home all alone on a Saturday night."

"Never fear, my young green friend!" Impulse exclaimed, appearing out of nowhere. "Superboy called me here to keep you company. We'll play video games, eat junk food, and talk about how great it is to finally have a night without the chicks around."

"All right!" Beast Boy exclaimed, holding up a hand and high-fiving Impulse. "Tonight is going to be awesome!"

"Glad you got over us leaving so quickly," M'gann said dryly.

"Be grateful he wasn't looking for a long goodbye," Connor said, walking into the room in a tux without a tie. "It's time for us to be going." He stopped for a moment to take in the sight of M'gann. "You look great tonight."

"Thanks!" M'gann said, giving a twirl as a brilliant smile lit up her face. Rachel couldn't help smiling at her friend's joy. The two heroes were obviously very close and Rachel wondered how long they had been dating for.

~.~

Rachel stood in a corner of the garish gymnasium, idly crushing a juice cup in her hands. She knew the night would end up like this. A smelly room decked out in lame decorations with her by herself wishing she was back at the cave. She should have joined Impulse and Beast Boy instead.

A whistle to her left caught her attention and she turned with a glare, ready to chew the jerk out. The glare turned to a smile when she saw Nightwing in a tux with same sunglasses she always saw him in whenever he was out of uniform.

"I'm surprised you can see well enough pick me out of the crowd," she said, raising her eyebrows and gesturing at the dim lighting around them. "I'd have expected you to stumble into every dark-haired girl thinking it was me."

"I'd never mistake anyone else for you, Rachel," Nightwing said with a grin, taking her crushed cup and tossing it into a nearby trash. "I'll have you know that even with the glasses I can still see that you look great. Though there is a good chance I'll be blind by the time I'm thirty if I keep this up."

"Who else from the Team came tonight?" Rachel asked curiously, leaning closer to Nightwing to make sure none of the nearby party goers heard her.

"Bee and Guardian are here together. And Batgirl brought a date, though no one that you know."

"Well, if anything dangerous happens here tonight, I think we've got it covered."

"A hero's always a hero," Nightwing joked. "There's no such thing as a true night off for people like us. Now, before we forget why we're actually here," Nightwing paused to hold out a hand to Rachel, "would you like to dance?"

Rachel tentatively reached out and took his hand. "I'm warning you right now, I don't think I know how to dance."

"Don't worry, I'm excellent at leading." He led her away from the wall before pulling her close and swaying to the music. Rachel concentrated on paying attention to what Nightwing was doing, not wanting to make a fool of herself. It surprised her when he pulled her into a spin and asked, "How are your memories coming along?"

"The same as ever," Rachel sighed. "Which is to say, not at all. M'gann even checked my mind again to see if anything that's happened might have jogged some of my memories, but she can't find a single memory from before the moment I woke up with you."

Rachel's hand unconsciously tightened against Nightwing as the thought of her memories riled her. "I'm tired of waiting around for something that may never happen. It's been months already and some people who get amnesia never recover their memories. I don't want to put my life on hold for something that _might_ happen sometime in the future. I like my life. I like working with the Team and I love being a superhero and helping people. M'gann and I have been talking about enrolling me in college, and I think I'm going to do it. If my memories do come back, then I'll deal with them, otherwise, I plan to keep moving forward from where am I right now."

Nightwing went silent for a few moments and Rachel regretted her irritated tone. She hadn't meant to take out her frustrations on him.

"What about what, or more importantly, _who_ you left behind? There are probably friends and family out there waiting, hoping, for your return."

"There's nothing I can do about that," Rachel answered bluntly. Then Nightwing's quiet tone as he asked that question made a question of her own pop into Rachel's mind. "How would you be treating me if I had all my memories and we solved everything with the Shadows? What would you do if all your stated reasons for sticking around the Team disappeared?"

Rachel really wished she could see Nightwing's eyes behind his glasses and she jumped in surprise when he leaned down, pulling Rachel close and kissing her. Nightwing pulled back just enough to rest his forehead against hers and ask, "What if you already have a boyfriend out there somewhere?"

Rachel flushed red and struggled to gather her thoughts before retorting, "And what if I was an orphan who had nothing until I lost my memories and joined the Team?"

Nightwing threw back his head and laughed, attracting the attention of the dancers around them before he pulled Rachel into a hug. "I have been thinking about rejoining the Team fulltime," he admitted. "Or asking you to join me in Bludhaven after you get your memories back."

Rachel and Nightwing barely moved with the music, more caught up in their conversation than in what was going on around them. Rachel had suspected that Nightwing might have feelings for her too, though she hadn't wanted to voice the thought aloud even to herself in case she was wrong. However, she hadn't expected this much of an admission from him.

"Tell you what," Nightwing began, "why don't we make a deal? I've tried to find references to a superhero who fits your description and I've tried to find out who might have trained you, and both searches have led to dead ends. I agree that there might be nothing we can do about your memories or about finding out who you were, but we can find out what the Shadows want with you. If you're willing to wait until we figure that out, I'm willing to move forward as though the life you have now is your only life. Deal?"

"Deal," Rachel agreed, pulling Nightwing closer and resting her head on his shoulder.

 **A/N:** Hopefully, this chapter wasn't too stereotypical with using a dance. In my defense, I only did it because in the TV series some of the Team went to the Halloween dance together, so I figured it was something they might do again.


	18. Game Over

**A/N:** Finally, long chapter again! Also, thanks so much to Hithros for their review on the last chapter (and all previews reviews as well )

 **Chapter 17: Game Over**

"We have received concerning new intel on the latest version of Kobra Venom thanks to Scarlet Gem apprehending Kobra's laptop," Aqualad informed the Team. "The new Venom is supposed to temporarily give the user enhanced abilities, both physically and in regards to any powers the user may have, as part of the Team witnessed with Poison Ivy. Essentially, this version has all the benefits plus some of the last version without any of the previous consequences of permanently altering the user's body structure. We believe the Injustice League is teaming up with Kobra because they're interested in the power boost the Venom gives."

"Uh, not just interested, but using it to go on a rampage," Blue Beetle said, pointing to a muted news program playing on the cave's computer.

"What?!" The Team spun around to see the members of the Injustice League obviously enhanced with Kobra Venom attacking a city center.

"Joker looks super creepy lifting a motorcycle over his head and cackling like that," someone commented.

"We need to move now," Aqualad declared. "Miss Martian, you'll take all those who can fly and mount an airstrike against them. Robin, you take Scarlet Gem, Nightwing, Wonder Girl, and Superboy and attack from the left. I'll take everyone else and attack from the right. Understood?"

The chorus of yeses was interrupted by the Zeta Beam announcing the arrival of three members of the Justice League.

Aqualad frowned as Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Arrow crowded into the Team's debriefing room. Green Arrow looked around grimly at the assembled heroes. "I guess we've come at a bad time. We'll make this quick."

"Make what quick?" Impulse asked. "There's an entire city under attack by a super-powered Injustice League. More super-powered than usual, I mean."

"We're here to remove Scarlet Gem from the Team," Batman declared. "She's an agent of the Light that's been sent to infiltrate the Team. Again."

The Team gasped and looked to Rachel, though Rachel looked more stunned than anyone.

"That ridiculous!" Beast Boy exclaimed, moving to stand in front of Rachel. "Do you guys have any idea how much help Scarlet Gem has given the Team? We wouldn't have found out what the Order of Lagash was up to and stopped them without her help, and she's been on a bunch of other missions too. She saved my life!"

"What better way to gain the trust of the Team than for her to help you?" Batman countered. "Her help in taking down the Order of Lagash is back-handed proof that she's a spy. What are the chances that some girl you randomly saved would speak ancient Sumerian, just the language the Team needed to know in order to learn the plans of the Order of Lagash? Queen Bee and the Light used the Order as a sacrificial lamb for Scarlet Gem to earn the Team's trust."

"Then why did I find her imprisoned by the League of Shadows?" Nightwing demanded.

"So that you would save her and bring her to the Team for protection, of course," Batman replied. "You played right into their hands." Batman sighed when Nightwing began shaking his head in denial. "You must have had your own doubts about Scarlet Gem. There are simply too many suspicions circumstances surrounding her appearance and abilities."

"You're just guessing and making a bunch of stuff up!" Beast Boy argued. "What other proof do you have?"

"The same night the Team was in Paris stopping the Order of Lagash, I overheard the League of Shadows talking about their agent in Paris performing well," Batman said, "and just two weeks ago Green Arrow was tracking Count Vertigo when Scarlet Gem was chasing down Shimmer. Green Arrow heard Count Vertigo tell Shimmer that Scarlet Gem was on their side and he warned Shimmer not to hurt her. Those two instances together, as well as what we've already explained, is our proof."

Nightwing clenched his fists, wanting to continue arguing, but having nothing to say. He had to acknowledge that the person he thought he knew and cared for might not actually have existed before a few months ago. After all this time, they still hadn't learned anything about Rachel other than her ability to fight and the languages she knew.

"We don't have time for this now," Aqualad ground out. "Scarlet Gem, do you have anything to say in your defense?"

The Team turned to look at Rachel again and she shook her head helplessly, feeling sick and wishing she could disappear. "I still don't remember anything. M'gann checked my head again just recently. If the Light somehow planted me here as a spy, I wouldn't know it."

"No!" Beast Boy yelled, looking around at everyone. "I can't believe this. Without having _any_ memories, Scarlet Gem has risked her life and fought with us. We've seen how much she cares about saving people! M'gann has seen inside Scarlet Gem's mind and _knows_ that she's loyal to the Team. Even _if_ Scarlet Gem was a bad person before, which is a very big if, she's a good person now!"

"We must stop the Injustice League," Aqualad said. "That is our priority right now. While I have appreciated Scarlet Gem's help, I've felt from the beginning that something was off. We must leave now and we'll allow the Justice League to sort this out."

"But—!"

" _Now_ ," Aqualad emphasized.

Beast Boy looked back helplessly at Rachel as he filed out with the rest of the Team. "This isn't over," he promised her before she disappeared from sight.

"Can't at least some of stay?" Beast Boy begged Aqualad as they boarded the bio ship.

"No, we don't know how powerful the Injustice League will be with the help of the Kobra Venom. We need everyone there."

Beast Boy buckled himself in and glared at the back of Nightwing's head. "What do you think of all this, Nightwing? You don't actually believe that Rachel works for the Light, do you? And what about you, M'gann? We've lived with her for the past five months!"

"We know how clever the Light can be," M'gann hedged, looking uncertain. "Red Arrow didn't know that he was a mole."

Blue Beetle shook his head. "Jeez, you said that the Light was up to something, Superboy, but I didn't expect it to be something like this."

"I don't know," Superboy said, looking out the window. "Something about this feels off to me."

"Thank you!" Beast Boy said, throwing his arms up in the air. "Finally, someone other than me sees some sense here."

"It is not the time to debate this," Aqualad said. "We will continue this discussion _after_ our mission. If you wish, we will go to the Hall of Justice and see what we can find out."

"Fine," Beast Boy relented, crossing his arms and glaring at Nightwing again.

~.~

Rachel went along willingly while Wonder Woman dragged her through the Zeta Beam and to the Hall of Justice. Rachel had never been here before, but recognized it from pictures that Beast Boy had shown her.

Rachel jumped when an alarm sounded and Green Arrow's hand reached for a comm link in his ear. "Black Manta and his forces are attacking Atlantis," he told the other two. "Aquaman needs back up now."

"I'll take care of this one and meet you guys there," Wonder Woman said, picking up her pace. Wonder Woman hurried them into the basement of the Hall of Justice and threw Rachel into what looked like a temporary holding cell. "You'll wait here until we can question you," Wonder Woman informed her before flying away.

Rachel rubbed her sore arm and muttered, "There's nothing to tell you that everyone doesn't already know." She backed up until she hit the wall before sliding down it and hanging her head in her hands. The worst part of all this was that she couldn't say for sure that she _wasn't_ an agent of the Light. She couldn't imagine herself hurting anyone or working for an organization like that, but she simply couldn't _remember._

"Hellllloooo," a high-pitched voice said. Rachel looked up in surprise to see a red eyed teenager with hair swept up into two points floating inside her cell. "You have been a very difficult young woman to track down and capture, Miss Battery, but we've got you now."

~.~

The Team trudged back into the cave after a very long and difficult fight. They subdued the Injustice League and got them locked away, but who knew for how long? And they still had no idea where the rest of the Kobra Venom was.

When the Team entered the debriefing room, they were met with the sight of a very serious looking Batman. "Scarlet Gem got away," he declared.

"What?" Nightwing demanded, in disbelief. Beast Boy sagged in disappointment, barely comprehending Batman's words.

"The League had an emergency right after we locked her away and we had to leave. This confirms that she was acting as an agent of the Light, and now everything she knows about the Team will soon be in the Light's hands."

"That doesn't make sense," Nightwing argued shaking his head. He couldn't believe that Rachel had just up and left without offering any sort of explanation. Maybe she panicked when the Justice League took her? They were strangers to her and Nightwing just let them take her away without even a fight.

"Yes, it does," Batman said in irritation. "Her mission was compromised, so she gave up on pretending."

"She couldn't have pretended enough to fool M'gann's mind reading!" Beast Boy burst out desperately.

"There are ways around mind readers," Batman declared, glaring at Beast Boy.

"The Light won't get away with tricking us like this again," Robin said. "We're going out there to find Rachel, right? Maybe we can catch her before she reconnects with anyone from the Light."

~.~

"Our allies played their parts well to lead to this moment," Vandal Savage declared as Klarion hooked the unconscious battery up to the trans-dimensional device. "Kobra, the Injustice League, the League of Shadows, Black Manta. A lot of work has gone into retrieving this girl."

"Of course, the foolishness of the Justice League worked in our favor," Psimon added. "It's so easy to manipulate them. A word here, a word there, and the Justice League will believe whatever you want them to."

"All done," Klarion said, standing back in satisfaction and flipping on the machine. Nothing happened.

"What's this, Klarion?" Professor Ivo asked snidely. "I recall you claiming that this girl absolutely had the ability to power the device and that _I_ must have built it incorrectly the first time, or that it had already broken. However, it looks to me like you had the wrong girl from the beginning."

"I do _not_ have the wrong girl," Klarion snarled, his eyes glowing red. He turned back and looked the device over before turning his attention to the battery. "Why aren't you working?" He muttered, using his powers to sense the girl. He frowned as he realized he didn't sense any of the power from when he found her floating around as a disembodied spirit. How was that possible?

Klarion held his hands over the girl and chanted a spell. "Aha!" He cried. "I see what happened. Now it makes sense why you fought me so hard as a spirit but became docile after I housed you in Teekl's body."

"What caused the problem?" Psimon asked.

"She somehow lost all sense of self when I transferred her spirit. It bound her powers and her memories, though I don't see why the transfer would have done that. Oh well." Klarion shrugged. "I know a spell to draw out her powers."

Klarion ran one sharp nail down the battery's arm, drawing blood. He used her blood to draw a series of symbols on her forehead before chanting, "Rinet nich et futal!" All at once, the battery's power returned to her, then began flowing through the wires connecting her to the device. The device came to life, whirring as the power gauge quickly tilted to full power. Klarion flipped one more switch and a portal swirled to life on the other side of the device.

"Gentlemen," Klarion began, "I present your pathway to another world."

"You go through first," Professor Ivo demanded. "Just to be sure."

"Coward," Klarion muttered before flying through the portal and coming back a moment later. "It works. Now are we going or not?"

~.~

"You guys might want to come take a look at this," Robin said.

"What did you find?" Aqualad asked.

"Not what we're looking for, but I think we should probably check this out," Robin responded. Aqualad tasked Robin with hacking into security cameras around the city to search for Rachel's face. He'd been unsuccessful so far, but he had found something else. "A whole block's worth of security cameras just went offline. I investigated the cause and it looks like there was a massive burst of power from one of Lex Corps. labs that drew enough power to black out a quarter of the city."

"Sounds like something we should check out," Superboy seconded.

"Agreed," said Aqualad. "Robin, you keep searching for Rachel. Superboy, Miss Martian, Beast Boy, and Nightwing will come with me to investigate what Luther is up to now."

"Isn't Luther supposed to be out of the country acting as the Secretary General of the United Nations?" M'gann asked.

"Doesn't mean he can't still cause trouble at home," Nightwing said. "Let's move out."

When they arrived at Lex Corp. labs, they carefully canvassed the outside. "It is possible that they're actually testing out a new invention that is legal," Beast Boy pointed out. "Are we still going to break in?"

"There is a chance that whatever testing they're doing is legit," Nightwing agreed, "but I highly doubt it."

"Can you get us in, Nightwing?" Aqualad asked.

"Of course." Nightwing connected his wrist computer to the keypad lock covering a back door to the lab. "Luthor's got some pretty high tech security, but nothing as impressive as what the League has." A few moments later, they were in.

"Robin said the power surge happened in the northeast corner of the lab," Nightwing reminded everyone. "According to the lab's floor plan, there should be a testing room just down this hall. I bet will find our mystery machine in there."

The Team silently made their way down the hall, the cameras having already been set to loop the same images from the past five minutes. Nightwing had to break open the door leading to the room, though M'gann stopped him before he actually opened the door. " _I sense familiar minds in that room_ ," M'gann warned the Team. " _It's some of the Light's henchmen_."

" _So this_ is _something that we needed to investigate after all_ ," Beast Boy thought. " _Then what are we waiting for?_ "

The Team burst into the room and quickly dispatched of the henchman. "What the heck is that?" Beast Boy asked, pointing to a swirling vortex coming out of a large machine on the other side of the room. Beast Boy walked closer, wanting to get a better look at the machine. He saw something long on the other side of the machine and kept walking. It almost looked like a dentist's chair and strapped inside was…Beast Boy froze in horror when he saw the chair's occupant.

"Beast Boy?" M'gann asked, seeing her friend's face. "What's wrong?"

Beast Boy numbly pointed and the rest of the Team came around to see. M'gann gasped and held a hand to her mouth. Rachel lay in the chair, her eyes open and unseeing. Nightwing lunged forward and pressed his fingers to her neck. "She still has a pulse," he declared. "It's weak, but it's there."

"Do you still think that maybe Rachel is working for the Light?" Beast Boy demanded, rounding on M'gann and Aqualad. "Do you think _that_ looks like she was a willing participant to whatever they're doing?"

"I don't think the Light was trying to get Rachel on the Team as a spy," Superboy said. "I think they wanted to get her _away_ from us. They made it look like she was a mole to make the Justice League suspicious of her. The Light outsmarted us again and Rachel paid the price."

"I should have trusted her," Nightwing ground out. "That's what my instincts were telling me. Darn it!" Nightwing smashed a fist into the machine, making Beast Boy jump.

"What is that thing?" Beast Boy asked again. "And why did they need to hook Rachel up to it to make it work?"

"I have no idea," Nightwing said. "But I'm taking this thing off her now." Nightwing undid the wrist and ankle restraints before pulling the wires connected to Rachel's head off. He frowned when he got a good look at her forehead. "They drew something in blood—" He began, but was soon drowned out by the machine. When he unhooked Rachel, the machine began beeping loudly. The swirling vortex expanded and contracted, tendrils flying out and lashing wildly. Nightwing quickly grabbed Rachel and held her close, just before the vortex enveloped all six of them.

Then everything went dark.


	19. New World

**A/N:** Two updates for this week!

 **Chapter 18: New World**

"What happened? Where are we?" Beast Boy demanded, looking around wildly. They found themselves standing on a pier, still in the dead of night.

"That machine must have been a transporting device of some sort," Aqualad mused. "It appears we got sucked into a portal to another place when Nightwing shut the machine off. Is everyone okay?"

"Everyone except Rachel," Nightwing commented, pulling her unconscious form closer.

"Why would the Light need Rachel to power a transporting device?" Superboy asked. "What's the point? It seems like a lot of effort for something that could be accomplished in much easier ways to me."

"We will figure that part out later," Aqualad promised. "For now we need to find out where we are." The Team followed Aqualad through a series of warehouses, but slowed their pace when they heard fighting up ahead.

"Do you think it's the Light?" Beast Boy asked quietly. "I bet they went through the portal before we did."

"I'll go check," M'gann offered, making herself invisible. A moment later, the Team heard from a very confused M'gann. _"It's…our team fighting? I see Bumble Bee, Tempest, and Red Arrow…and there's a speedster that must be Impulse."_

Aqualad frowned. _"Tempest has not fought since Aquagirl died and Red Arrow only works solo. What in the world is going on here?"_

" _I swear Impulse said he was spending the night at Blue Beetle's when we got back from fighting the Injustice League,"_ Beast Boy said. _"If Impulse is there, Blue Beetle should be too. And hey! Now we know where we are if other members of the Team are here. That portal didn't take us very far."_

" _The bad guys are getting away!"_ M'gann exclaimed. _"I don't recognize who these bad guys are though…"_

" _Let's go!"_ Aqualad and the Team jumped out from their spot behind a loading dock. Nightwing lagged behind, not wanting to put Rachel in any danger. When they appeared, the fighting heroes stopped, staring at the Team in shock and letting the villains flee to a truck.

"What are you doing, Bumble Bee?" Aqualad asked in irritation. "You let them get away."

Bumble Bee raised her eyebrows and put a hand on her hip. "You did _not_ just tell me what to do."

"What are you doing here, Kaldur?" Tempest asked.

"I was going to ask you the same question, Garth," Aqualad replied as M'gann flew down next to him. A moment later, a blur joined the heroes standing opposite the Team and separated into two people.

"I guess the speedster wasn't Impulse," M'gann mused, looking very confused.

"How did Beast Boy shrink?" Red Arrow asked. "And who the heck are the green woman and the Superman wanna be?" His eyes trailed back until he spotted Nightwing. "Hey Nightwing, what's going on here? Are these new Titans?"

"You could have called and told me you were coming to our city," Bumble Bee said, sounding irritated. "Rather than having Mr. Fish Boy over here walk up and talk like he's in charge of everything."

Nightwing stopped walking forward and the Team stayed silent, each of them growing more confused by the minute. "I think…" Aqualad began, "I think we may be farther away from home than we originally thought."

"You don't know how I am?" M'gann asked Bumble Bee.

Bumble Bee looked her up and down. "No, and I'm pretty sure I'd remember meeting a green woman."

"I'm a Martian," M'gann stated, offended at being called a green woman for the second time.

"You don't say," Bumble Bee commented, raising her eyebrows again. "Here I thought that Martian Man Hunter was the only Martian on Earth. Actually, I thought he was the only Martian left period."

Before M'gann could inquire further into what that meant, Nightwing reached the Team. "I think it'd be best if we all went somewhere we could sit down and figure out what's going on here. Our team was pulled through a portal a few minutes ago and we ended up here. I don't think we're the version of ourselves that you're familiar with, and vice versa."

Nightwing stopped talking when he realized the heroes' attention wasn't really on him. All of them seemed preoccupied with the black-clad figure in his arms. Or, more particularly, the gem on her forehead.

"Raven?" The man who Nightwing thought of as Red Arrow asked tentatively. The expressions on their faces made Nightwing apprehensive for some reason and he half turned away from them.

The Tempest look-a-like shook his head sadly and put a hand on his companion's shoulder. "Didn't you just hear them, Speedy They're not from this dimension and that's not our Raven."

~.~

The Team followed the other heroes to their base, which turned out to be a giant T, for Teen Titans, at the edge of the city. It wasn't the most inconspicuous of hideouts, but Nightwing had to admit that all their tech and resources impressed him.

On the way to the T, the Teen Titans explained that they were Bumble Bee, Speedy, Aqualad (Speedy suggested just calling them Kaldur and Garth to keep things simple), and twin speedsters called Mas y Menos who only had super speed when they touched each other.

After the Teen Titans and the Team got settled in the living room, Kaldur explained how they ended up there.

"But a more pressing matter is the fact that we believe some of the most dangerous supervillains from our world traveled here to your world first using the same portal," Kaldur informed the Titans. "Unfortunately, we cannot say for sure which villains came through or how many."

"I think this might be too big for just us to handle," Bumble Bee admitted. "I'm calling the Titans West. Garth, will you show Nightwing where the infirmary is and bring their friend there?"

As Garth and the other Nightwing left, Bumble Bee moved to the kitchen for some privacy and pulled out her T phone.

"What's up?" Nightwing answered, his face appearing on the small screen.

"We've got some crazy stuff going on here in Steel City with parallel dimensions, supervillains from another world, and not to mention another version of you and Beast Boy. This is kinda out of our depth there. Think your team could come out and help?"

"What villains and what are their capabilities?" Nightwing asked.

"That's part of the problem. We don't know which ones or how many."

Nightwing sighed. "We'll be there in a couple hours."

~.~

The Titans West all froze when they entered the Titans East's T Tower. Hearing there was another version of yourself was one thing. Seeing it for yourself was another. Nightwing looked his copy over, noting all the similarities. They even wore the exact same costume. The only difference between the two was one had long hair while the other had short hair.

"Too weird. It's like looking in a mirror that shows my future self!" Beast Boy exclaimed upon seeing his Teen Titan counterpart.

"Why do you have a tail?" The Teen Titan hero asked, causing the other Beast Boy to crane his neck to make sure his copy didn't have one.

"What a second," Superboy interrupted, "if you guys don't know M'gann, then how did Beast Boy get his powers?"

"I don't think any of these things are issues we need to be dealing with right now," the Teen Titan leader stated, staring uncomfortably at his Nightwing counterpart.

"Agreed," Speedy said. "I'd say the first order of business is to figure out what we're going to call the Nightwings and the Beast Boys. Otherwise, this is all going to get way too confusing."

"Ooo! I'll be Beast Man," the Teen Titan's Beast Boy volunteered, raising his hand in the air.

Cyborg raised his eyebrows at him. "Or we could just call you BB."

"Come on, man," Beast Man argued. "It's about time we changed my name. I turned eighteen last month."

"Works for me," Speedy said. "We'll call our Beast Boy Beast Man from now on. What about the Nightwings?" He cast his gaze between the two young men, then smirked. "We could always just call one of you Robin."

The two gave an emphatic, "No," in unison.

"I'll go by NW while we're here," the Nightwing from the other team volunteered, getting the idea after Cyborg suggested calling Beast Boy by his initials. "I don't mind it."

"Fine," Nightwing agreed. "Now that that's settled, let's get down to real business. Starting with how this team ended up here in our world." Nightwing turned to his counterpart. "Care to explain that part to me?" To his surprise, Kaldur started talking instead. Nightwing realized he shouldn't have assumed the other Nightwing was leader of his team just because he was leader of the Titans.

After Kaldur's explanation of their comrade being kidnapped and used to open a portal, Nightwing asked, "And where is this Scarlet Gem?"

"She's in the infirmary," Bumble Bee answered. "She's alive, but totally out of it. I was hoping that Cyborg could run a diagnostic on her."

"Sure thing," Cyborg agreed, then turned to look at Nightwing. "Should we do that now?"

"Since we don't know whether or not she needs immediate medical attention, yes."

The Titans West and Bumble Bee along with the new team crowded into the infirmary for Cyborg to run his tests. The rest of the Titans East went to bed, having been up for twenty hours trying to track down the new HIVE's base.

Nightwing froze when he entered the infirmary and saw who lay on the bed. Behind him, Beast Man bumped into him. "Hey, what's the deal man?" He asked before seeing for himself.

"Sorry," Bumble Bee said with a wince. "I forgot to mention that they're Scarlet Gem seems to be their version of our Raven."

Starfire looked at Scarlet Gem tearfully and Beast Man left the room. Cyborg walked up to the girl, looking rather pale for the dark hero as he hooked Scarlet Gem up to some machines. Nightwing understood how his team felt, but the sight of what looked like Raven wasn't the only thing stopped him in his tracks. It was the fact that this 'Scarlet Gem' wore _exactly_ the same superhero outfit that Raven had been wearing in his dreams. What in the world did that mean?

"How long has Scarlet Gem been a member of your team?" Nightwing asked.

"Three months," Beast Boy responded. "But we've known her for five. Why?"

Nightwing's brain began whirring. Raven disappeared, so to speak, eight months ago. "How did she join your team?"

"Why?" Beast Boy demanded. "Do you think she was working with the supervillains to open the portal to this dimension? She wasn't!"

Nightwing turned a questioning look on the young hero. "Why would I think that? Scarlet Gem's counterpart was one of the founding members of the Teen Titans and one of my best friends. I have no reason to think her counterpart was working with supervillains in your world."

"Oh," Beast Boy said, looking at the floor sheepishly.

"Then why do you want to know about Scarlet Gem?" Superboy asked, crossing his arms.

"You said that the supervillains in your world used her to open a portal, but you don't know why it had to be her that they used. I'm just trying to figure out why they targeted your teammate. Do you think that Scarlet Gem knew why they wanted her?"

Miss Martian shook her head. "Scarlet Gem didn't have any memories. Our Nightwing found her being held by the League of Shadows. He rescued her and then she later joined our team, but she never remembered anything."

Nightwing nodded, becoming even more suspicious. He failed to see why he would be dreaming about Raven's counterpart from another dimension, and the more he heard about this 'Scarlet Gem' the more Nightwing wondered if their Raven somehow ended up in another dimension. "What powers does she have?"

"No powers," Kaldur answered with a shake of his head. "She's an excellent fighter and very intelligent as well as having other useful skills."

Over by Scarlet Gem, Cyborg looked up from his tests to raise his one eyebrow at Nightwing, then shot a significant look at the red gem on the girl's forehead. Nightwing gave a nod to Cyborg to show he understood. _If_ this girl was Raven's counterpart from another dimension, she should still be only half-human since she had the same gem that Raven had as a result of being Trigon's daughter.

A moment later, Scarlet Gem rose a few inches in the air. Her teammates gasped in surprise.

"What's going on?" Beast Boy exclaimed, running over to grip the edge of Scarlet Gem's bed and glare at Cyborg. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing," Cyborg answered. "She did that on her own."

"What do you mean she did that on her own?" NW demanded, speaking up for the first time since the Titans West arrived.

"Calm down," the leader of the Teen Titans ordered. "If your Scarlet Gem is genetically the same as our Raven, and it looks like she is, she's gone into a healing coma. That's what Raven did whenever she was badly injured."

"A healing coma?" Superboy questioned, looking over at his unconscious friend. "Does that mean…what does that mean?"

"It means she's only half-human," Cyborg answered. "I can check her DNA if you want, but I'm pretty sure I'll find exactly what Nightwing suggested, that she's genetically similar to her counterpart from this world."

"What's the other half?" Beast Boy asked curiously.

"Something else," Nightwing responded and the room got quiet.

Beast Boy eventually broke the silence. "So…where's your teammate Raven?"

"She is…not here right now," Starfire answered, gripping one arm with her opposite hand and staring at the floor. "But she will be back!" Starfire exclaimed, looking at Beast Boy determinedly.

"Okay…" Beast Boy said awkwardly, surprised at Starfire's emphatic response.

"Got the results," Cyborg declared before anyone else could say anything. "I don't see anything overtly wrong with your friend. It looks like her body is exhausted and some of her organs are strained. I don't see anything major other than that, but I can't tell you when she'll wake up."

Beast Boy looked sadly down at Scarlet Gem. "Okay. Is it all right if I just stay in here for now? I want to be here in case she wakes up."

"Sure," Bumble Bee said, before looking at the rest of the Team. "I'm sure this has been a lot for all of you to take in and I understand wanting to stay close to your hurt teammate in an unfamiliar place. Feel free to stay here as long as you like. The rest of us should probably turn in though." She nodded at the Titans West and walked out.

 **A/N:** Since the YJ series takes place largely on the East Coast, I had the portal transport them to roughly the same place in the TT dimension. Hence, the reason the Team ended up in the Titans East's city.


	20. Guilt

**A/N:** The last two chapters sure got a lot of response. Thanks for all the comments and reviews!

 **Chapter 19: Guilt**

Nightwing reluctantly followed Bumble Bee out of the infirmary with Starfire and Cyborg trailing behind him. He didn't want to leave the girl who might be Raven alone with an unfamiliar team, but he didn't dare say anything. If Scarlet Gem really was Raven's counterpart from another world, he didn't want to get his teammates hopes up.

When they reached the guest rooms of the Titans West tower, Cyborg pulled Nightwing aside. Starfire looked at them curiously and Cyborg waved her on. "I just want to ask Nightwing something about Mad Mod that I forgot about," he said. "You go on and get to sleep, Star."

Starfire nodded and continued on.

"Mad Mod?" Nightwing asked with a raised eyebrow.

Cyborg shrugged. "No need to get Star involved in a conspiracy theory unless we find more concrete evidence, and you can't tell me that those guys' story didn't sound all kinds of fishy to you."

"Agreed," Nightwing said. "What do you think is going on here?" He decided to keep his own thoughts on the matter to himself unless Cyborg revealed that he agreed with him.

"I don't know," Cyborg said, rubbing his head. "But something about their story just doesn't add up. This girl who seems to be Raven's counterpart shows up outta the blue one day being held by the League of Shadows. These guys save her and turn her into a superhero because she's got mad skills, except she has no memory and seems to be unaware that she should have magic? Something's gotta be up there. And did you see how their Beast Boy freaked out when he thought you were accusing Scarlet Gem of helping out the bad guys?"

"That was weird," Nightwing agreed, still not understanding why Beast Boy got so riled up about that.

"What do you make of all this?" Cyborg asked.

"I have a theory," Nightwing admitted, "but not one I want to share until I know more. As for this other team of superheroes, I don't know if we can trust them or not, but for now I think we should just keep an eye on them."

~.~

"What if she never wakes up?" Beast Boy asked, sitting on the edge of Rachel's bed and taking her hand. "It'll be all our fault if she doesn't, because it's our fault this happened. We took her in to protect her from the League of Shadows, but the Light got her in the end anyway, and we practically handed her over to them!" Beast Boy clutched his friend's hand tighter. "We never should have let her leave the Cave without us in the first place."

"The Justice League had her with them," Kaldur pointed out. "We had no reason to doubt the League's ability to care for Rachel. The Light orchestrated for both the Team and the Justice League to be away from her. We cannot change the past. We can only go forward and make it up to her."

"Sure," Beast Boy muttered. "If Rachel actually wakes up and decides to forgive us."

"Don't forget what the other Nightwing said," M'gann added encouragingly. "He thinks that Rachel's in some kind of healing coma right now. I bet she'll wake up soon."

"Can you check her mind?" NW asked. "Maybe you'll be able to see if she's close to waking up."

"Sure," M'gann said. She walked up to Rachel's side and closed her eyes to concentrate. A moment later, black light flickered around Rachel for an instant and M'gann stumbled backwards, letting out a cry of surprise.

"M'gann!" Superboy exclaimed, grabbing her arms to steady her. "Are you okay?"

"What happened?" Kaldur demanded, looking from Rachel to M'gann.

"I-I don't know," M'gann stammered. "It's like something blocked me. I couldn't get into her mind at all."

"Maybe it's part of the healing coma?" Beast Boy suggested. "An unconscious defense mechanism to protect her while she's helpless?"

"That could be the case," Kaldur agreed. "We don't know anything about her powers."

A cough at the door drew the Team's attention. "Bumble Bee wanted me to show you guys to the guest rooms," Garth said, looking sleepy.

"We should retire for the night," Kaldur agreed, looking out the window. "The sun will rise soon and we've yet to get any sleep this night."

~.~

NW stared at the wall of the unfamiliar room, a guilty churning in his gut as he thought about Rachel. How would he face her when she woke up? He let the Justice League take her away without saying a word in her defense. What had she thought as she was dragged away and only Beast Boy continued to speak up for her?

Unable to stand it any longer, NW got up and went back to the infirmary to sit by Rachel. It still weirded him out to see her floating, but it also made him want to know more about her. Rachel seemed resigned to not having her memories, but NW wanted to know about her past, and about what led her to wanting to spend all her time helping people even after losing all her memories.

~.~

" _This is bogus!" Speedy said, throwing his hat down. "I thought you were going to induct us into the Justice League, not keep us tied down as sidekicks. I thought we were partners."_

" _Give it time, dude," Kid Flash urged. "We've still got more to learn."_

" _Maybe you do," Speedy said, "but I'm done with us. I'm going solo." The young man turned and stomped out of the room._

 _The dream fast forwarded to show Kaldur, Kid Flash, and Robin infiltrating Cadmus and finding Superboy. Afterwards, the Justice League surrounded them all to chastise them for their actions._

" _With all due respect," Kaldur declared, "this will happen again. We accomplished something great here tonight. As a team."_

" _That's right," Superboy agreed. "So get on board, or get off."_

The leader of the Titans rolled over and sat up groggily, shaking his head. What the heck had that dream been about? He'd met the Kaldur of this world all of once in his life and hadn't met Kid Flash or Speedy until after the Titans formed. And he'd never heard of any Superboy before today. All the excitement of a few hours ago must have affected his dreams.

Glancing at the clock Nightwing read five-twenty. He groaned as he rubbed his face. He'd been in bed for less than three hours. Shaking off his tiredness, he decided to go to the infirmary to check on Rav—Scarlet Gem. He needed to not think of her as Raven until he was sure.

Nightwing paused outside the infirmary and frowned. A light was already on inside. Who was in there? Peeking through the door, Nightwing found himself sitting next to Scarlet Gem. Or, at least, the other version of himself. Nightwing frowned harder at the sight. What was his counterpart doing here? For some reason, it weirded Nightwing out to see himself standing vigil over someone who looked like, and might be, Raven. What kind of a relationship did the other Nightwing have with 'Scarlet Gem'?

Feeling like an intruder, Nightwing stepped to the door and cleared his throat. "You might want to get some rest. We don't know when the supervillains from your world will strike and we don't want to be caught off guard."

His counterpart turned to look at him before turning to look at Scarlet Gem again. "I know, I just couldn't fall asleep, so decided to come here. I guess I'll go try again."

~.~

" _Think the three of us can stop her?" Cyborg asked, nodding to the crazy alien girl tearing the city apart._

" _Don't know," Robin responded, glancing at the two unfamiliar teens to either side of him. "But we need to try."_

 _Before the trio of young men could leap into action, the giant figure of a black raven blocked them and a cloaked figure stepped out of a nearby alleyway. "I don't think she's trying to cause harm," the figure said, removing a hood and revealing a girl about Robin's age. "Maybe you could try stopping her without using violence."_

 _Beast Boy, Robin, and Cyborg all looked at each. Beast Boy and Cyborg shrugged and Cyborg said, "It's worth a try."_

" _Are you coming?" Robin asked the girl. She turned away. "If you knew what I was, you wouldn't want me around."_

" _I know enough," Robin countered with a smile._

 _The dream fast-forwarded to show the four youngsters teaming up with the alien girl to stop a bigger alien threat. Afterwards, they stood on a small island._

" _We made a pretty good team," Cyborg commented. "Maybe the five of us should keep in touch. Just in case."_

NW blinked awake, staring at the ceiling in confusion. What the heck had that been about?

~.~

"Once again, I've done all the legwork and found out what all _you_ people want to know," Klarion said, appearing suddenly and floating in the air.

"And?" Savage demanded. "What did you find out?"

Klarion sighed and studied his nails. "Oh, you know, the usual. The villains of this world want the same things we do. World Domination. Destruction of the Justice League. The death of all telemarketers and door-to-door salesmen."

" _And?_ " Professor Ivo prompted impatiently.

"And the Brain in this dimension along with his associates are more than happy to meet with us to discuss the accomplishment of all of the above. Also, someone closed down our portal, so we're stuck here for the time being. I suggest you all get comfortable." 


	21. Revelations

**A/N:** Another night of insomnia, another extra chapter…

Also, some people are confused about the memories/dreams the two Nightwings are having. The Teen Titan's Nightwing's dreams have nothing to do with his connection to Raven. Otherwise, it wouldn't be both Nightwings having the dreams. The dreams started right after the YJ Nightwing got hooked up to the trans-dimensional device by an inept lackey of Professor Ivo. Hopefully that explanation's not too confusing. This plot will play out in a few chapters.

 **Chapter 20: Revelations**

Speedy flipped on the big screen TV in the living room, programing it to split into multiple screens and show all the major news channels as well as the local Steel City news channel, then turned the volume down low and joined the rest of the heroes around the kitchen table and dining area.

Kaldur watched the screens for a moment before sighing. "There's still been no sign of any villains from our world."

"Maybe their lying low while they flesh out their evil plans," Beast Man suggested. "Just because they haven't shown up yet, doesn't mean they're not here."

"Right," Nightwing agreed. "We can't let our guard down just because things have been quiet so far. Mas y Menos, I want you to contact all the superheroes we know around the U.S. and warn them about what's happened. Also, tell them to inform the Titans if they hear or see anything suspicious."

"Sí!" The twins agreed, now knowing English after leaving in the United States for years.

"I'll hack into the local security cameras and look for anything out of place," Cyborg volunteered. "If these heroes landed here in Steel City, the villains probably did too."

"What do we do once we find them?" Bumble Bee asked. "We need a plan of action to make sure no one goes running in recklessly if they find anything."

"We need to find out which villains from our dimension came here and what they're planning," Kaldur said.

"What if there aren't any villains from our world here?" Beast Boy asked. "We should probably plan for that too. We've been here a couple days and we still haven't seen anything. The portal _was_ still open when we got there and we didn't see anyone go through."

"If that's the case," Nightwing began, "then we need to think of a way to get your team back to your own dimension. There is a member of the Titans who can open portals to other dimensions, but it's a blind stab in the dark. He doesn't know where he's opening portals to and he might send you all to the wrong place."

"I think I'd rather we stayed here for a while to make no sure no villains from our dimension came here," Kaldur said. "And I'd also prefer a more sure way of us getting home if possible."

"That fine," Nightwing said. "Though my team will need to return to Jump City soon. The villains will realize we're gone sooner or later and start wreaking havoc on the city. Bumble Bee, are you okay to keep housing these guys for now?"

A screeching alarm went off a moment later, making everyone startle. Garth jumped to his feet and ran to a computer, typing something in. "It's HIVE," he said, turning to the room.

"We'll help you," Nightwing offered.

"We'll come as well," Kaldur said.

"Sure," Bumble Bee agreed with a shrug. "The more the merrier. At least, for our side."

~.~

Raven blinked groggily as she gentled floated down onto the bed underneath her. She sat up in confusion as she looked around and wondered where she was. And why couldn't she feel any of her magic? She never used enough to completely deplete her internal store.

As she wondered over this, her memories hit her in quick succession. Trigon attacking and possessing her. Nightwing destroying her physical form. The Lord of Chaos finding her and the Team.

Raven reeled from the onslaught of information and finally realized where she was. It looked like the Titans East infirmary. How in the world had she ended up here? The last thing she remembered was…the Justice League taking her away. Typical.

Dragging herself out of the bed, she pulled the black superhero mask off her face and wandered around and confirmed that she was in fact in the Titans East Tower, though she didn't find any of the team members. And of course she had no T-phone. Assuming hers hadn't been destroyed, it would be at the Titans West Tower. Sighing, Raven decided to make herself at home in the living room. The Titans East were probably away protecting the city and would be back eventually.

~.~

"We kicked their butts!" Beast Boy exclaimed excitedly as the heroes returned to the T Tower.

"HIVE did have three different superhero teams attacking them," Speedy said dryly. "I sure hope we kicked their butts with odds like that."

Their banter stopped when Starfire gasped and pointed at the couch. A number of heroes got ready to attack before they noticed who the figure was.

"Rachel!" Beast Boy exclaimed, running forward. "You're awake!" Flinging his arms around her, he said, "I'm so glad you're okay." Under his arms, he felt his friend tense and he pulled away, tears springing to his eyes. "You hate us now, don't you? What happened was all our fault. We let them take you. I'm so sorry! I should have fought harder." He turned to give a helpless look to the rest of the Team.

" _We_ should have fought harder," Superboy corrected. "You are our friend and teammate and we should have believed in you. We know you, the Justice League doesn't. We shouldn't have let them come in and dictate everything."

"We know we screwed up royally," M'gann said, stepping forward, "but I swear we'll make it up to you if you let us."

"No, it's not that," their friend said, shaking her head. "I'm not mad at you, Beast Boy, I'm just not big on hugs. And my name's not Rachel." She turned to look at Nightwing, surprised and happy to find the Titans West there, though confused at the appearance of all these heroes. "It's Raven."

"You got some of your memories back?" Beast Boy asked in surprise. "Hey! The version of yourself in this world is named Raven too!"

Raven shook her head gently. "No, I _am_ the Raven from this world." That statement set off a loud cacophony of noise with all the Titans talking at once while the Team stood in stunned silence, not knowing what to think of this latest development.

" _Enough,"_ Nightwing ground out, moving to stand where everyone could see him. The Titans silenced. "Raven, please explain."

"After I lost my physical body I still wanted to do good with my powers, but it was painful to stay near the Titans since I could not fight and live with you as I once did, so I found a dimension similar to ours to help defend, the dimension of this team," Raven pointed to Beast Boy and inclined her head towards Kaldur and the others.

"I was only there a short time before a Lord of Chaos, a very powerful and dangerous being, found me. While I was in spirit form, my powers were increased and I could see into his mind and see the Light's, the evil organization the Lord of Chaos works for, plan. They created a trans-dimensional device that could only be powered using the energy of a magic user who had the ability to travel between dimensions. This device would allow them to select whatever dimension they wanted rather than them ending up who knows where, which, as saw when we tried to help Killowat return to his own dimension, is what usually happens when you use magic to try and travel between dimensions. This device would also allow a large group to pass through the dimensional portal, something that can be very difficult and dangerous with magic. Basically, this device provided a safe and convenient way for the Light to travel to a dimension similar to theirs."

"And why did the Light want to travel to another dimension to begin with?" Nightwing asked, crossing his arms. Though he was elated he was right in guessing the supposed Scarlet Gem to be Raven, he still put superhero business first. Plus, he wouldn't be comfortable showing his true emotions in front of so many strangers. Even if one of those strangers was himself in a way.

"They plan to petition the supervillains here to join forces with them. The Light will offer to help the villains here eliminate this Justice League, while also establishing a permanent base here, and in return they want the villains here to go to the Light's world to help them eliminate the Justice League there. They want to create a lasting alliance between the supervillains of the two dimensions so that they can team up and defeat anyone who challenges them. For that plan to be a success the Light needs a stable link between the two dimensions so that all the villains can move freely between the two worlds."

Beast Boy sunk into the seat next to Raven, looking shocked and overwhelmed. "Bad news," he muttered, shaking his head and tossing a look at NW and M'gann. "Bad, bad news for both dimensions." Then he turned to look at Raven. "But how do you fit into all this?" He held back his myriad of other questions. The first being, how the heck did she lose her physical body and end up wandering around as spirit? And what did that even mean?

"I'm a magic user with the ability to travel between dimensions," Raven answered dryly. "I fit the exact parameters of what the Light needed other than the fact that I didn't have a physical body to connect to the trans-dimensional device. Since the Lord of Chaos had the magic to create a new body for me, that problem didn't create much of a barrier. When Klarion sensed my presence, he went after me. I used my powers to shove my magic into dormancy before the Lord of Chaos got ahold of me in the hopes that it would delay the Light's plan. However, binding my magic also shoved my memories into dormancy, leaving me in the state the Nightwing found me in."

"NW, not Nightwing," Speedy corrected. "We're differentiating between all the duplicate heroes we've got here. The Aqualads are just going by their names, and our Beast Boy is now Beast Man. That last name change is permanent, by the way."

Beast Boy hung his head and stared at his hands in his lap. "You went through all that trouble to try to protect our dimension, and then we ruined all your hard work and sacrifice in one night of stupidity."

"It probably would have happened eventually one way or another," Raven said gently, laying a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder. "Without my memories, I had no way of warning any of you of the Light's plans." Strictly speaking, Raven wasn't sure how she felt towards the Team for what they did, but she didn't blame Beast Boy for any of it. Everything was happening so fast right now that she didn't have time to sort out her feelings in regards to any of it. Luckily, Raven exceled at being stoic inside and outside.

"What a second, what a second," Beast Man said, holding his hands up by his chest and walking to the couch. "So you're telling me that _this_ Raven is _our_ Raven."

"Yes, Beast Bo—Man, I am the Raven from this dimension." The moment the words left Raven's lips, Beast Man threw himself forward and wrapped his arms around his friend.

"I thought that Raven didn't like hugs," Beast Boy said, watching the interaction and feeling hurt, but also happy to see that the version of himself in this world appeared to be such good friends with Raven. Maybe that was why he and Rach—Raven got along so well.

"She doesn't," Beast Man said, squeezing Raven tighter. "But we hug her anyway. We missed you so much, Raven!"

"That's not a good enough reason to suffocate me," Raven said, feeling happy about the exuberant welcome despite her words. Beast Man finally backed off and Starfire immediately replaced him.

"It is most joyous to have you back, friend Raven. We have spent many long nights missing you and trying to find a way to bring you back to us."

"It's good to see you too, Starfire," Raven admitted. After Trigon possessed her body and she had Nightwing destroy her physical vessel, she never expected to be able to be with her friends again. To see and be among the Titans once again…Raven didn't know how to express how she felt. Though she did know that she was grateful that her powers were no longer as strongly connected to her emotions as they once were, or the living room would probably be destroyed by now.

"I apologize for interrupting your reunion," Kaldur began, "but I was wondering if perhaps Raven could tell us which villains traveled to this dimension."

"I have no idea," Raven said, shaking her head as Starfire sat beside her, on the opposite side of Beast Boy. "Klarion knocked me out at the Hall of Justice. The next thing I remember is waking of here. How did we end up here?"

"We were searching for you after…," Superboy started to say, then cut himself off. "We were searching for you when Robin found a major power surge and we decided to check it out. It led us to you and the trans-dimensional device. When we found you, you were unconscious and hooked up to the device with an open portal behind you. Nightwing disconnected you from the machine and when he did that, the portal dragged all of us through to this dimension before it closed."

"There's only so much we can do with the information all of you have given us," Cyborg said, looking frustrated. "We still don't even know if any supervillains from your world are here and who they might be if any of them _are_ here."

"I find it hard to believe that none of the Light are here," Raven cut in. "Why else would the portal have been open when the Team arrived?"

"The Team?" Beast Man echoed. "What kind of name is 'the Team'?"

"Not the point, BB," Cyborg said. Beast Man glared at him over the old nickname and Cyborg shrugged apologetically. "Anyway, what I was getting at is that there's only so much we can do right now other than just keep an eye out, so I think we should celebrate the fact that Raven's back."

"No," Raven said, shaking her head vehemently and waving her arms in the air. "Oh, no. I don't want anything like that and you know that, Cyborg. Besides, whether we can do much or not right now doesn't change the fact that there's still a potential crisis going on. We can celebrate after we kick the Light out of our dimension."

Cyborg raised his eyebrow. "Even then you still won't want to celebrate, so what's the difference between us celebrating then and us celebrating now? We at least need to let all the Titans know that you're back and safe."

"That last part we can do," Nightwing said, "but we should probably hold off on doing anything else for now."

"Or forever," Raven muttered.

Beast Man smirked. "Jinx is going to be pissed that all her work to bring back Raven was for nothing."

~.~

"What do you think of our plan?" Vandal Savage asked, sitting back after explaining it in part.

"It is a good plan," Brain admitted, "but the Brotherhood of Evil would like to make some minor adjustments to it."

"Oh?" Savage questioned, that one word carrying a world of threats.

"It has been our experience that it is wiser to take out the newest generation of superheroes first. They can be most persistent and are surprisingly formidable foes. If we eliminate the new generation of superheroes first, the Justice League will have no one to fall back on, and once the Justice League falls, there will be no one to stand in our way."

"Yes," Savage agreed slowly as he thought through the implications of this change to his plan. "The former sidekicks of the Justice League in our dimension may have caused us worse trouble than the Justice League themselves. I see the logic in eliminating them first."

 **A/N:** For those who don't know, when Raven first came to Earth in the comics, she went to the Justice League to ask for their help against Trigon. Zatana said that she sensed a demonic aura from Raven and the League refused to help her. Hence, Raven thinking it typical of the Justice League to not trust her.

And the story of the Titans helping Killowat (an honorary Titan in the TT TV series) return to his own dimension happened in the TT comics that were written to go along with the television series.


	22. The Morning After

**Chapter 21: The Morning After**

"Seriously?" Beast Boy demanded. "You can morph into dinosaurs _and_ aliens? I'm so jealous! Do you think I'll be able to learn how to do that?" For once, Beast Man actually got up early willingly when his counterpart came knocking on his door the next morning wanting to talk with him. They'd already spent an hour telling each other how the Titans and the Team formed and how they came to become superheroes join their respective teams.

"I think it might be possible. We didn't get our powers the same way, but I couldn't morph into dinosaurs or aliens at first either. That only happened after I learned more about my powers and became stronger."

"What do you think, M'gann?" Beast Boy asked, turning to look at M'gann and Superboy, who sat on stools by the kitchen while Beast Boy and Beast Man sat on the couch. NW and Kaldur were eating cereal and the rest of the Titans seemed to either still be in bed or busy elsewhere.

"I don't see why not," M'gann admitted. "Injecting you with my blood gave you the power to transform your shape. I don't see why you'd be limited to just transforming into animals."

"Maybe you could even learn to transform into other people," Superboy suggested. "Except you'd still be green…never mind, stupid idea."

"No! I still think it'd be fun," Beast Boy assured Superboy. "I need to keep practicing and see what all I can do."

"That's the spirit," Beast Man encouraged. "But don't expect it all to come easy. I trained a lot with the Doom Patrol before I could transform into a dinosaur, and then I trained a lot with the Teen Titans before I could transform into alien forms. You need to be patient."

Beast Man paused and looked at the heroes around him before checking to see if any Titans had miraculously appeared in the past three seconds, though only one Titan in particular concerned him at the moment. "So, what was Raven like without any memories?"

Superboy and M'gann looked at each other before Superboy asked, "What do you mean?"

"You know, they say that people are the sum of their memories and experiences. What was Raven like without any of that? Outgoing? Moody? Quiet?"

"She was really nice," Beast Boy said, becoming subdued and staring at his hands. "I really liked having her live at the Cave and being on the Team with us, but she'll probably stay here now since this is her home." He looked up at Beast Man and smiled sadly. "She helped us out on a mission and put herself in danger without having any memories or knowing she could fight. I got knocked out in a fight and Raven stepped in to save me anyway."

Beast Man felt bad about asking once he saw how sad his counterpart looked. He'd been so excited to have Raven back, he hadn't considered how these strangers from another dimension would feel about losing their teammate. Assuming Raven did want to come back to the Titans. Beast Man tried to push that thought away, but the truth was, no one had any idea how Raven felt about all this. No one had really had a chance to talk to her yet.

"She couldn't cook," Superboy stated, trying to lighten the mood. "She wanted to help out around the Cave, but her attempts always ended in disaster, so she started just setting the table and doing the dishes instead."

Beast Man burst out laughing. "It's the same here! She can't cook at all. Anything she makes is completely inedible to everyone except for Starfire, and she has four stomachs. Rae volunteers to do the dishes all the time since she never does any of the cooking."

They stopped talking as they heard voices coming down the hall.

"You know how I hate anything sentimental," Raven said as she appeared in the doorway, walking next to Cyborg. "I don't want to deal with tears or an endless chorus of 'welcome back'. Can't you or Nightwing just tell the rest of the Titans that I'm back?"

"How would you feel if one of the other Titans disappeared off the face of the Earth after sacrificing themselves to save your _life,_ and then when they reappeared they didn't even tell you themselves that they were back?" Cyborg countered.

"I would feel that they didn't want to be mobbed, either in person or via technology, and I would completely sympathize. Wasn't all that ruckus last night with the Titans East and West torture enough?"

Cyborg sighed. "Your _friends_ expressing their gratefulness at you being _alive_ is not torture, Rae."

"It is when all of them insist on hugging me."

"Why are you so against hugs?" Beast Boy asked tentatively, not sure how to talk to Raven now that she was no longer Rachel. He should have asked Beast Man what Raven was like so he could know how similar the two were. Not that Rachel and Raven were different people exactly, but it kind of felt like they were.

Raven paused. How did she explain something so complicated to someone who knew nothing about her past or her powers? "Hugs weren't exactly a part of my upbringing, and my powers don't lend themselves to getting up close and personal with other people. I'm an empath and being that close to another person can be uncomfortable. For someone who's calm like Cyborg or Nightwing, it's not as big a deal, but being hugged by Beast Man or Starfire usually equals emotional overload."

"Hey! I'm a lot calmer than I used to be!" Beast Man argued. "And I'm sure the rest of the Titans appreciated my youthful enthusiasm when we were a fledgling superhero team."

Beast Boy looked between Beast Man and Raven before asking, "Are the two of us a lot a like? Beast Man and me, I mean?" Beast Man seemed so cool and mature to him, and he wanted to be just like him when he got older, but he was definitely one of the least mature members of the Team. Hearing Raven and Beast Man talk made him think that maybe Beast Man used to be more like him.

"You're a lot like Beast Man used to be," Raven told Beast Boy. "Except cuter and less annoying."

"Hey!" Beast Man exclaimed again while Beast Boy beamed.

"All right," Cyborg interrupted, "how about this, Rae, I'll make you waffles for breakfast if you'll make the call to the other Titans to tell them that you're back and safe?"

Silence, then, "Fine."

NW smiled into his cereal, finding Raven's quick acceptance of Cyborg's wishes in return for waffles adorable, though the smile quickly faded. This was exactly what he had been afraid of in growing closer to Rachel and every bit of it had come true. Not only did 'Rachel' have a team who loved her and missed her, she wasn't even from the same dimension as him. Just being from another team they could have worked with. Being from another dimension? That was another issue entirely. Not that he even knew if Raven had any interest in him after what he'd done and now that she had her memories back.

Beast Boy, Beast Man, and Raven were sitting down with waffles an hour later when the rest of the Titans wandered in.

"Titans West," Nightwing announced, "get ready to leave in a couple hours. We're going back to Jump City until we learn more about what the Light is planning. We can't leave the city unprotected for so long."

Beast Man and Beast Boy groaned. "But we're getting along so well!" Beast Man complained. "Don't you want to learn more about your counterpart from the other dimension? Trade superhero stories and fighting techniques? You might learn something."

"I'm not so sure that leaving is a good idea," Raven cautioned. "The Light is tricky and has very powerful members. If we go back to the Jump City and they strike here, we might not make in back in time to help."

"They might not even be in Steel City anymore," Nightwing pointed out. "They could be anywhere in the U.S. or even on another continent by now."

"Then we should use me as bait to draw them out. The Teen Titans will make a public announcement about my return. If the Light is in our dimension, they'll need a way home and I'm their best bet for getting back to their own dimension."

"No," Nightwing immediately shook his head. "Maybe later, but you're way too vulnerable right now."

"Why is she vulnerable right now?" Superboy asked, looking confused. "Are there any lasting effects from the device?"

"Raven still does not have all her powers back," Starfire explained. "The travel-between-the-dimensions device sapped all her magic. It will take a little time for her to be back to full strength."

"Raven fought with our team for months and she didn't have any powers," Superboy pointed out. "We all thought she only had fighting and espionage training, and she had no trouble keeping up with us. Why should she need her powers to take on the Light here when she didn't in our dimension?"

"I'm glad to hear that Raven's fighting skills were good enough to impress you," Nightwing said, "but in this dimension, Raven only uses hand-to-hand combat as a last resort. Raven is one of the most powerful magic users on our Earth. I trained her how to fight to help her focus her mind and in case she ever ran into situations where she couldn't use her magic, but I don't want her out there fighting without her powers."

NW finally knew why Raven's fighting style was so familiar to him. He apparently taught her himself, in a roundabout way. "Don't you have any faith in your teammate?" He asked. Nightwing slowly turned and gave him a dark look. NW shrugged. "I'm just saying, you should know how good she is since you trained her, and our team saw her in action enough to know that we could count on her in a fight. I agree that using her as bait might not be the best idea, but you shouldn't hold her back from the field on account of her not having all her magic."

The room became silent as everyone focused on the Nightwings. Finally, Mas muttered to Menos, "Did you know that Raven could fight?"

Menos shook his ehad. "I only ever saw her use magic. Why bother learning to fight when your enemies can't even get close to you?"

"We're not using my friend who just came back from the dead as bait," Nightwing enunciated.

Raven sighed. "Would everyone please stop saying I came back from the dead? I wasn't dead, I just didn't have a physical body. It's not the same thing."

"Maybe you should consult with your team before you make a decision like that on your own," NW said, everyone completely ignoring Raven's comment.

"It's interesting that you seem to be so loose with Raven's safety when after everything I've heard your team say, it sounds like you all willingly placed Raven in the position that led to the Light capturing her. Something that you conveniently left out of your narrative about what happened to bring you all here."

Beast Boy dropped his fork, slumping in his seat as M'gann and Superboy stared at the floor.

"I gotta say, I'd like to know the whole story behind that too," Cyborg said, crossing his arms. "You all kept apologizing to Raven last night and we have no idea why."

After a few moments of awkward silence, Raven said, "The Light tried to make it look like I was their spy. The Justice League came to remove me from the Team and lock me up and the Team allowed it. Once in the possession of the Justice League, the Light got ahold of me."

"There was an emergency situation going on at the time," Kaldur defended stiffly. "I assumed we would have time to sort everything out afterwards."

"I thought you said Raven had no memories," Starfire said. "How could she be a spy with no memories? And you acted as though you cared for her when she was in the infirmary. If you cared for her as a teammate you should have trusted her, should you not?"

"We weren't acting!" Beast Boy declared, standing up fast enough to knock over his chair. "We do care about her! Raven is my friend!"

"Really?" Bumble Bee asked, the atmosphere turning darker by the moment. "From what you all said before and from what we just heard, it sounds like Raven did a whole lot to help you guys even without having any memories, but then you turned on her the moment the Justice League told you to. Some teammates you are."

"This is why we don't work with the Justice League unless we have to," Speedy said, shaking his head. Many former sidekicks, while still caring about their former mentors, had an uneasy relationship with them. Particularly when the Justice League tried to interfere with and regulate the actions of the Teen Titans upon occasion. "We just make better decisions. Can we really trust a team that caters to the Justice League?"

"Before this goes too far," Raven interjected, "the circumstances surrounding my appearance in their dimension _were_ suspicious and the Light _has_ tricked the Team before. Also, Beast Boy didtrust me. He fought the hardest against the Justice League taking me."

"I think we could all use some time to calm down," Nightwing said. "Bumble Bee and I will contact the other Titan leaders and discuss how we should shift our resources to deal with the Light. The rest of you, take the day off."


	23. Deception

**A/N:** Special thanks to guest reviewer Anita Morgan for their lovely review on this story.

 **Chapter 22: Deception**

"We don't have the manpower to take on these so-called Teen Titans and this world's Justice League," Psimon pointed out. "The plan was to come here, make contact with the villains, then move our resources as we deemed necessary. With the portal out of commission and no current way to move our allies between the dimensions, we cannot move forward with our plan."

"Now, now," Klarion chastened, "let's not be too hasty. Just because we've run into some setbacks doesn't mean we have to put the whole plan on hold. Ignoring Debbie Downer over there, we don't know enough about the heroes of this world. _Or_ the villains. The Brotherhood of Evil may have struggled with these kiddie heroes, but that doesn't mean that we will. We need to see what they're capable of first. What we need is a demonstration."

"Don't get cocky," Savage warned. "As Aqualad pointed out right after he revealed his betrayal of the Light, the Justice League's covert operation team has done so well against us because we continued to underestimate them. They are a force that should have been stopped long ago and would have been if not for our pride."

"That aside, you should be searching for a way to return us to our own dimension rather than chasing after teenage heroes," Brain said. "Out of all of us, you are the one most capable of finding a way."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm thinking on it," Klarion brushed off. "Dimensional travel isn't easy you know, that's why we needed the trans-dimensional device in the first place."

"Because that has worked out _so_ well so far," Professor Ivo said sarcastically. "First we lose the battery. Then when we first get ahold of her, she's somehow lost access to her powers and the device ends up breaking. After we finally fix the device, get ahold of her, and shake the Justice League and the Team off her tail, something goes wrong in our dimension and we lose our portal!"

"Has anyone ever told you how impatient you are?" Klarion asked. "You think the Light would have made it this far if we panicked at every setback?"

"You're one to talk about patience!" Professor Ivo exclaimed. "We're lucky to keep your attention on one task for five minutes!"

"Whatever. You all sit here and whine about your hard lot in life. Maybe you'll manage to come up with a new plan. I'm taking one of the Brotherhood of Evil and finding out more about the Teeny Titans."

"Don't engage them," Savage warned. "We don't want to put them on guard by having a new villain show up unexpectedly."

"Sure, sure." Klarion waved one hand idly in the air, not bothering to look back as he opened a portal and stepped through it.

~.~

"How boring," Klarion groaned, sitting on top of a tall rooftop with Madam Rouge standing beside him. They watched what Madam Rouge referred to as the Titans East Tower from a few buildings over. Walking along the beach, Klarion spotted Miss Martian, Superboy, Aqualad, Beast Boy, and Nightwing. "Another world. The _exact_ same heroes. I was at least hoping for some new meat."

"I don't recognize some of those heroes," Madam Rouge said uncertainly.

"What?" Klarion asked, looking between her and the heroes on the beach. "You don't even keep close enough track of your enemies to know who's on their team? How do you expect to take them down if you don't even know their strengths and weaknesses?" Klarion was hardly one to talk. He knew he couldn't name all the members of the baby Justice League, but this wasn't about him. "Exactly how competent is the Brotherhood of Evil?"

"Maybe _I_ should be asking the same of _you,_ " Madame Rouge ground out, glaring at Klarion before pointing to the top of the tower. "It looks to me that Beast Boy is on top of the Tower, so how could he possibly be walking along the beach? Perhaps you brought some of your old enemies along without knowing?"

Klarion jumped into the air, straining his eyes as he looked between the top of the Tower and the beach. It did look like two Beast Boys to him. More importantly, the figure standing on the Tower between that Beast Boy looked rather like the battery. Klarion grinned and rubbed his hands together, his eyes burning red. "It looks like today is my lucky day. Are you in the mood to meet some new friends, Madam Rouge?"

~.~

"Did you _have_ to antagonize the leader of the Teen Titans?" Beast Boy asked NW as they walked along the beach. "You do realize that these guys are giving us food, water, and a place to live while we're stuck here, right?"

"I know," NW said, feeling a pang of guilt for what happened that morning. Not for calling Nightwing out, but for the conversation that followed. If he hadn't upset Nightwing, it might not have led to the Team's betrayal of Raven being dragged out in front of all the Titans. "But you guys can't tell me you weren't bothered by Nightwing acting like Raven couldn't fight unless she had powers."

"I don't see a problem with it," Superboy agreed. "Scarlet Gem always seemed plenty capable of taking care of herself in a fight to me."

"Do you think they'll kick us out now?" Beast Boy asked glumly.

"They're not going to kick us out, Beast Boy," M'gann assured, though she didn't feel as certain as she tried to sound. "They're superheroes. What kind of superheroes would throw out other superheroes stranded from another universe out on the streets? Besides, you heard Raven defend you in front of everyone."

"She did, didn't she?" Beast Boy said, giving a pleased smile. Then he felt guilty. He was glad that Raven defended him, but her only defending him made it sound like she might be upset with the other members of the Team. He wished he could talk with her alone, but wasn't sure how to go about it. They talked all the time before. She had usually sat with him as he did his homework.

"Still," Kaldur said, "it might be a good idea for you to apologize to Nightwing, NW. I'm not arguing that you were in the wrong, but this is their dimension and we must play by their rules while we are here."

NW sighed and shook his head, kicking a rock into the ocean. He hadn't been trying to pick a fight. At least, that's what he told himself. The way that Nightwing talked about Raven, like he simply knew her so well that he could make a decision on her behalf without even consulting her, really irritated NW. He hadn't consciously thought about speaking out during breakfast, it just happened. Not that he even knew if he _was_ in the wrong. Maybe this Nightwing and Raven _were_ close enough that Nightwing could speak for her. The thought made him miserable.

"Maybe we could try talking to Raven," M'gann suggested. "See how she feels about being kept out of the fighting just because she doesn't have all her magic right now. After fighting in our world for months without her powers, she might feel more confident in her combat abilities."

"That sounds like a good idea," Kaldur agreed. "We should speak with Raven anyway and give her a proper apology and explanation for what happened. She may no longer be a part of the Team, but she was a true friend to us while in our dimension. We owe her at least that much."

"What if…" Beast Boy began, but then faltered.

"What if what, Garfield?" M'gann asked.

Beast Boy shook his head and scuffed one foot in the sand. "Nothing, it was just a stupid idea."

"Come on," M'gann cajoled. "Tell us."

"Well, what if Raven still wants to be part of the Team?" He rushed to continue. "I know that this is her home, but I think she really liked working with us. Just because the Teen Titans were her first team doesn't mean she'll want to stay with them."

"I guess we don't actually know how she feels about any of this," Superboy said slowly. "Everything has been so hectic and it all happened so fast that I doubt she's had time to process it all."

Before they could continue the discussion further, Nightwing started walking down the beach towards them, face serious. Beast Boy nudged NW and he sighed, though stepped forward.

"Hey Nightwing," NW said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I just wanted to apologize for earlier. I didn't mean for my words to come out so combative. I'm sure you know your teammates better than I do."

Nightwing seemed taken back by NW's words and he paused for a moment, then gave NW an easy smile. "Don't worry about it. This situation is difficult for all of us, but probably more so for you guys than for us. The Titans have gone through a lot together. We're like a family, but that doesn't mean we don't value and want your guys' help. Really, I'd like to get to know your team better."

He looked over his shoulder down the beach and jerked his thumb in that direction. "I actually think I found some evidence of the supervillains from your world down at the wharf and I wanted you guys to come take a look at it. Maybe you can identify who it's from."

"We would be happy to help," Aqualad agreed.

Beast Boy looked confused and said, "I thought you said everyone should take the day off?"

Nightwing smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "I just can't seem to help myself. A superhero is a superhero is a superhero, right? We're never really off the clock. Sorry to drag you guys down there after telling you to take it easy."

"It's no problem," Kaldur assured him. "It's not as though we have anything else to occupy our time with."

~.~

Several hours later, Raven walked around the T Tower with a frown on her face, looking out windows and searching empty rooms.

"Something wrong, Raven?" Nightwing asked her.

"Did the Team tell you anything about them heading off somewhere?" She asked. "Garth said that he saw them all go outside, but that was hours ago and I can't find them anywhere."

"Maybe they're out taking in the sights of Steel City," Beast Man suggested with a shrug. "This is a whole new dimension for them. I'd want to check out the sights of another dimension if I got stranded there."

Raven shook her head. "They wouldn't have taken off without telling someone first. And if they did want to go out into the city, I doubt they would have gone in their hero costumes. With their own versions of you and Nightwing, that could cause some problems for citizens to see them walking around looking oddly different."

"Have you checked the whole tower?" Beast Man asked. "It _is_ a big place."

Raven gave Beast Man a look. "I'm aware of that, Beast Man, but, again, I doubt they would have given themselves a tour of the tower without asking for someone's permission first. Some people do have manners, you know."

Beast Man shrugged again. "In other news, how did your talk with the rest of the Titans go?"

"Fine," Raven brushed off. "Some of the Titans insisted that they're coming to see me and to help with the Light. I told them not to bother until we learned more, but they ignored me."

Mas y Menos suddenly appeared in front of the trio, jabbering away so fast they almost couldn't understand them.

"On the TV!"

"Madam Rouge hijacked it!"

"Come see now!"

"What?" Beast Man, Raven, and Nightwing asked in unison.

"Come!" The twins repeated, before speeding off again.

"Did they say something about Madam Rouge?" Beast Man asked. The three looked at each before they ran for the living room. The rest of the Titans were gathered around the big screen TV. On the screen they saw a close-up of Madam Rouge.

"Good Evening, Titans," Madame Rouge said. "It has been a while since our last encounter. It appears that after making some new friends, you've already managed to lose them."

Raven gasped, immediately guessing what had happened to the Team. The screen panned away from Madam Rouge to show the unconscious members of the Team. M'gann and Kaldur were chained next to high-powered heaters, the heat stealing away their strength. Beside them, Raven saw Nightwing chained to a wall and Superboy wrapped from neck to toe in chains that looked electrified. Last was Beast Boy, trapped in some sort of prison with transparent glowing walls that looked like they were made out of energy, doubtless to keep him trapped no matter what animal form he took. All five had lasers pointed at them.

The screen panned back to Madam Rouge and she said, "If you do not want these five to die, Scarlet Gem will come to an address that we will text to Starfire's T-phone. If anyone comes with Scarlet Gem, these heroes will be killed. I promise you, our lasers will work faster than you Titans can make a move. Scarlet Gem has until midnight tonight to make her choice." The screen went blank.


	24. Saviors

**Chapter 22: Saviors**

"There is no way you're going to that warehouse," Nightwing told Raven, the look on his face saying he would accept no argument.

"So you plan to let them die instead?" Raven asked, raising her eyebrows. Nightwing gave her a look and Raven said, "We have until midnight to think of something. It's not like I'm planning to rush over there by myself." The Titans East and West stood around the Titans East's living room, debating what their next move should be.

"If the Light has already teamed up with the Brotherhood of Evil, we better do some seriously inventive planning before any of us go near that warehouse," Bumble Bee said, crossing her arms. "The number of villains involved in this whole mess has just gone way up."

"Unless the Light hooked up with the Brotherhood this quick because they needed the help," Cyborg said. The others looked at him in surprise. "Think about it. The Light had no idea if the villains here would be game to follow their plan, and they wouldn't have any solid plans in place without talking them over with the villains here first. I bet the Light came here on a scouting mission, only bringing a couple members with them. When their portal unexpectedly closed, it stranded them here."

"Sounds probable," Raven agreed.

"But that still leaves the Brotherhood of Evil," Speedy said. "Some of the members may have left after they failed so epically against us a few years ago, but they still count a lot of villains among their allies."

"We can account for at least some of those," Cyborg said. "Some are in prison, and some we know are in other countries. I'll compile a list so we can at least narrow down who we might be facing."

"Good idea," Nightwing complimented with a nod, "but that still leaves the problem of our actual attack. If they spot anyone other than Raven approaching, they'll the kill the Team."

"I told you that other Titans are on their way," Raven reminded Nightwing. "I think I have an idea that might work."

~.~

NW blinked groggily and shook his head. What happened? And why was he chained to a wall? His concern grew as he looked around himself and saw the rest of his teammates in similar positions. M'gann looked awake and Kaldur was just beginning to stir, but both looked to be in poor condition.

"M'gann! Are you okay?"

"I…feel…weak," she got out, gasping for breath. "How…did we…get here?"

"I can answer that," Nightwing said, walking in through a side door.

"Why did you do this?" Beast Boy demanded, punching futilely on the glowing walls of his cell.

Nightwing laughed, though halfway through the laugh became husky and girlish and Nightwing's figure shifted and warped until a dark-haired woman in red took shape. "You teenage superheroes are all the same. Always so eager to help each other out and so easy to trick because of it."

"Why would you want to kidnap us?" Beast Boy asked. "You don't even know us!"

"It's not _you_ that you want," the woman replied. "You're just a convenient means to an end."

"If you…don't want us," Kaldur labored, "then…who is…your target?"

The woman shrugged. "The other one who came through to this dimension with you. Your dear nemeses who came through first insist that the girl Scarlet Gem is essential to their plans, though they've yet to say why. They seemed to think it would be difficult to get her alone and capture her, so we captured you instead."

"What good will that do you?" NW asked. "The Teen Titans will just come save us."

The woman clucked her tongue and shook her head. "The Titans have been warned that if they interfere, you will pay the price. If Scarlet Gem does not come to trade herself for you five _by herself_ by midnight, then you all die."

NW clenching his teeth, a sick feeling entering his stomach as he started angling his wrists in their chains, seeing if he could reach his lock pick tools. He wasn't scared about the Team's chances of escaping at this point. They'd made their way out of worse situations before. What did scare him was the thought that Raven would come to trade herself for the Team and end up back in the Light's hands. Now he felt grateful for Nightwing's obnoxiously protective attitude towards Raven earlier. Hopefully, Nightwing would be able to keep Raven from doing anything foolish.

~.~

"What will we do if Scarlet Gem doesn't show?" Professor Ivo snapped. He and the rest of the present members of the Light, Vandal Savage, Klarion, the Brain, Monsieur Mallah, and Psimon, were sitting in a security room with Madam Rouge watching the security cameras. Savage had decided they needed to forgo calling Scarlet Gem the battery for now. They didn't want the Brotherhood of Evil knowing of her significance. The portal between the two dimensions would be in the Light's complete control.

"Same thing we'll do if she does show," Klarion said. "Kill the Team."

Professor Ivo glared at Klarion. "You know that's not what I meant. We need a backup plan for apprehending the girl if this doesn't work. After all, _we_ engineered the situation that led to the Justice League and the Team doubting Scarlet Gem. After they handed her over to the Justice League, perhaps she doesn't feel so inclined to come rescue them."

"A hero is a hero is a hero," Klarion brushed off. "And even if this plan doesn't work, we'll still get rid of the most troublesome members of the baby Justice League."

"Quiet," Savage ordered, gesturing to a screen that showed right outside the warehouse doors. "She's here."

"Unbelievable," Professor Ivo said, squinting up at the screen. "To walk into such an obvious trap. Why would she come?"

"I told you," Klarion said. "A hero is a hero is blah blah blah. Waid, Madam Rogue, do the Titans have any shape shifters? Maybe that's not the bat—Scarlet Gem."

"No," Madam Rouge declared. "The Teen Titans do not have any shape shifters other than Beast Boy, who could not transform into the girl."

"Excellent," Klarion said, rubbing his hands together. "Now we just need to send out someone to welcome her. Mallah?" The giant ape lumbered out of the room.

Madam Rouge merely kept staring at the screen. "The Titans will come," she warned. "They may not be here now, but they will come."

"All we need is a few minutes with Scarlet Gem," Savage said. Scarlet Gem would open the portal back to the Light's dimension if they threatened to shoot the Team with the lasers pointed at them. "Then it won't matter if they come." They would already be back in their world and gathering their allies for their return.

~.~

NW had his eyes closed to help him focus as he picked the lock on his wrists. M'gann and Kaldur were too weak to do anything, Beast Boy had yet to break the walls of his cell, and Superboy still hadn't woken up. It was all up to him. He let out a triumphant grin as he got one wrist free, but stopped working when he heard a door open.

He glanced over to see Mallah coming in, the villain's eyes on the door at the far side of the room. Mallah continued into the room until he stood between NW and the unconscious Superboy. NW whipped his eyes around as the big metal garage door swung upward. He sincerely hoped it wouldn't reveal…Raven. His stomach sank. Why had she come? Why had the Titans let her come?

He frowned as he watched her walk in with her head down, a hood covering her head and a cloak flowing behind her. She was moving oddly. Raven normally walked like a trained fighter, with smooth grace, but something was off about her gait. Was this some sort of trick by the Titans?

"It was wise of you to come," Mallah said, watching Raven walk through the room. "Your friends would have perished otherwise."

"I've come," Raven agreed. She paused when she stood a few feet away from Mallah, her head still lowered. "But there's something you should know about the Teen Titans." NW gasped when Raven lifted her head. Her normally violet eyes were bright green. "We're _never_ alone." Suddenly, the figure of a blond teenager with bright green eyes flowed _out_ of Raven and _into_ Mallah. NW watched in disbelief as Mallah stumbled backwards before righting himself and looking up with bright green eyes.

"Now!" Raven yelled. Mallah—who appeared to be controlled by the green-eyed hero NW assumed was a member of the Teen Titans—leapt on top of the laser pointed at NW and tore it apart. Raven pulled out a staff and lunged for the laser covering M'gann as Mallah moved onto the one covering Kaldur. At the same time, two small figures flew out from Raven's cloak. One grew to become Bumble Bee, who immediately zapped the laser pointed at Superboy, while a small green fly grew to become a large green elephant who then stepped on the laser pointed at Beast Boy.

With the immediate danger out of the way, NW began picking the lock on his other wrist. Raven ran towards the control panel for the high-powered heaters and jammed her staff into it. The panel threw off sparks as the heaters shutdown and Kaldur and M'gann sagged in relief.

"You came," M'gann said, giving a small and tired smile.

"Of course," Raven said, picking the locks on M'gann's chains. "Was there ever any doubt?"

"After what we did to you? Maybe a little."

"Leaving someone with the Justice League and leaving someone with the Light are two _very_ different things. And you guys _did_ take care of me for a long time." Raven smiled at M'gann and M'gann's smiled widened.

Off to the side, Beast Man smashed the machine creating the energy walls around Beast Boy and the possessed Mallah broke the chains off of Superboy, letting out a roar of pain as the chains shocked him. Finally free himself, NW ran to Kaldur. "We've got to move fast," he said. "The other members of the Light will be here soon, I'm sure."

"Is this the Mallah from your dimension or the Mallah from mine?" Raven asked, supporting M'gann as the alien struggled to stand.

"I guess I don't know," NW answered, then sighed. "Here we were stupid enough to get captured and we didn't even learn any valuable information. The only people we've seen are Mallah and a woman in red who took on the appearance of Nightwing. That's how she tricked us."

"Madam Rouge," Raven said, looking around warily. "She's a tricky one. Are you sure all your teammates are who they should be?"

"I'll check," M'gann said weakly, putting a hand to forehead and concentrating. "Yes. It's us and no one else."

"Not for long," Vandal Savage said, appearing in the doorway Mallah used earlier. "I'm afraid I cannot allow you to leave with the Light's property."

Beast Man transformed back to human as Superboy began to stir, clutching his head and looking around in confusion. "You did _not_ just call Raven your property," Beast Man said, glaring at Savage and putting his hands on his hips.

" _Raven?_ " Madam Rouge sputtered, coming through the door followed by Klarion and Psimon. Being less physically inclined, the Brain and Professor Ivo opted to stay in the security room. "You said the girl you wanted was Scarlet Gem, not _Raven._ " Madam Rogue stopped in surprise when she saw spotted Raven. "You're supposed to be dead!" She exclaimed.

"Well, I did find her wandering around as a spirit in our dimension," Klarion said. "She wasn't dead though."

"Idiots!" Madam Rouge exclaimed. "You've returned one of the Teen Titan's most dangerous members to our dimension! Why did you do this?" Raven was oddly flattered to hear Madame Rouge's opinion of her prowess, but she really hoped that Madam Rouge did _not_ find out that Raven currently had very little access to her magic. That meant she needed to find a way out of this fight ASAP.

"She will not be with the Titans for long," Savage said.

"You won't be taking Raven again!" Beast Boy declared. "We outnumber you!"

"We may be outnumbered," Savage said, "but we're not outmatched."

Raven kept her focus on Klarion. The Chaos Lord made her the most nervous and she couldn't fight him without her powers. No one in the room was a match for him without magic.

Beast Boy backed up a little, looking afraid, but obviously trying his best to look strong.

"What's the game plan, Kaldur?" NW asked, reaching for his staffs only to find that they'd been taken away from him.

"Where are we?" Superboy demanded, standing up and joining his friends.

"Facing off with the Light," Kaldur responded. "Since we don't know Madam Rouge's abilities other than shape-shifting, I think Beast Man should handle her. Raven—" Kaldur was interrupted when M'gann cried out in pain, clutching her head. Psimon smiled cruelly as he focused on the Martian, able to catch her by surprise in her weakened state.

"Leave her alone!" Beast Boy yelled, transforming into a leopard and launching himself at the psychic. Psimon waved a hand and used his telekinesis to throw Beast Boy back. The green leopard went sliding across the floor before hitting a wall. He jumped back to his feet, shaking his head and growling.

"Mallah!" Savage yelled. "Focus on Mallah, not the girl!" Savage's words came too late as Jericho, the Teen Titan possessing Mallah, launched Mallah's body into the air, coming down right over Psimon. Psimon lost control of his mental grasp on M'gann in his panic as he dropped to the floor and rolled away. M'gann let out a gasp and transformed into a white Martian, focusing her mind on Psimon.

Raven and the other Titans jumped in surprise at the change. "What the heck did she just do?" Bumble Bee demanded.

"It doesn't matter!" Beast Man said. "We can cover that later!" He transformed into a T-Rex and charged Vandal Savage.

"Impressive," Savage admitted. "But it will do you little good." He easily moved out of the way of the lumbering dinosaur and taking out a gun, shooting Beast Man in the back of one leg. The T-Rex let out a roar before transforming back into Beast Man's human form.

"M'gann can't keep this up," Superboy warned, keeping one concerned eye on his girlfriend. "She's too weak."

"I am too weak to fight as well, I'm afraid," Kaldur admitted. "Savage may be right about us being outmatched."

"Just hand over the battery and this will all end better for everyone," Klarion said, flying into the air to get above the fighting.

"Right," Raven said dryly. "Because you promise to leave the Titans and the Team alone if I'll go with you?"

"Something like that," Klarion said, his lips curling into a smile.

"Enough of this," Madam Rouge said disgustedly, twisting her body and launching herself to wrap around Superboy.

"Hey!" He cried out, trying to pull his arms away from his body. All around Raven, the villains and the heroes launched into fights. Raven gripped her staff in frustration. If she had her powers she could have just teleported them all out of here immediately.

When Klarion appeared in front of her, Raven jumped back before lashing out at Klarion with her staff, as though that could possibly stop him. Klarion flew out of the range of Raven's staff and grinned. "Since you haven't used any powers since you got here, I'm assuming the trans-dimensional device drained your magic. You're completely defenseless."

"Not completely," Raven declared defiantly and Klarion snorted with disdain as he looked at Raven's staff.

"You think that dinky piece of metal—" Klarion's words were cut off when a wave of pink light crashed into him. Klarion dropped to the floor, a look of utter surprise on his face.

Raven heard a long-suffering sigh and she turned to see Jinx, standing with her arms folded and one hip jutted at an angle. "I've enjoyed being the most powerful magic-user among the Titans, but I suppose it's nice to have you back."

"Geez Jinx, don't overwhelm me with your enthusiasm." Despite her sarcastic words, Raven smiled. The cavalry had arrived. Kid Flash zipped in and immediately whirled around Superboy, disentangled Madam Rouge from him. Cyborg shot a sound cannon at Psimon and the psychic passed out. M'gann also dropped to the ground, having expended too much energy while already so weak.

Klarion flew up to the ceiling and looked down at the scene in front of him with a frown. Things were not going well _at all_ , which meant it was time to bail. Klarion flashed down behind Savage and grabbed onto him, transporting the two of them to the security room. When they appeared, Professor Ivo rounded on them. "Look, Klarion!" He screeched, pointing to the screen. "Do you see what you've done? Your impulsive actions have ruined everything!"

"Get ahold of yourself," Savage chided, irritated. "Yes, Klarion behaved foolishly, but all is hardly lost."

"Oooh! A secret rendezvous," a voice at the door said. "Mind if I join in?" The villains turned to see this dimension's version of Kid Flash leaning against the door. Not knowing how many heroes might be behind him, Klarion grabbed the two companions closest to him and opened up another portal. "Sorry, Brain. We'll come back for you later."

The normally composed villain shouted, "No! You rotten traitors—" But Klarion, Savage, and Professor Ivo were already gone.


	25. Declaration

**A/N:** Two updates in one weekend. Woohoo!

 **Chapter 24: Declaration**

" _You_ came to _us_ with a plan," the leader of the Brotherhood of Evil seethed. "You promised us the destruction of the Teen Titans. You promised us the end of the Justice League. All you've managed so far is a bungled attempt on the Teen Titans and to get my second in command locked up in prison, as well as losing three members of your own group. Why shouldn't we throw you out? Or better yet, _end_ you."

"I admit that things have not gone according to plan," Savage said, deciding to be honest. "We do not bring our full forces with us, because we only planned to make contact on this trip, but the Justice League sidekicks from our world got involved and destroyed our portal behind us, trapping us here. Our trans-dimensional device was powered by a superhero who was known as Scarlet Gem in our world. You know her as Raven. All we need is the girl, then we can return to our world and bring through our forces to combine them with yours. Then we will get Madam Rouge back and follow through on all our other promises."

"And what is your plan for apprehending Raven?" Monsieur Mallah asked. "Because it _will_ be _your_ plan. Your actions have brought together a large number of the Teen Titans. We will not call in our allies and engage them unless we are confident in your chances of succeeding."

"I am one of the most brilliant minds of this age," Professor Ivo declared, stepping forward. "My robots have seriously threatened the Justice League in the past. Give me the tools I need to create new ones and I will have the Titans flurrying to stop them. While the Titans are distracted, one of the robots will be targeted to go after Raven. _That_ robot will act as a trans-dimensional device." He threw a snide look at Klarion. "After already having to build it twice, I'm sure I can manage the process faster now. All the robot has to do is get close enough to touch Raven and connect with her power, then we will have a portal back to our world. Is that a good enough plan for you?"

"We shall see," Brain said. "We will give you the materials you require, but that is _all_ the help you'll get from us until you prove you're actually worthy of being our allies."

Savage kept quiet, but ground his teeth in frustration. It was infuriating to not be in charge. He knew how to stand back and let others do the work, of course. He'd always been good at working in the shadows, but everything required to make his plan work was just a dimension away. No, was just an irritating young woman away.

~.~

"Well, that was an exciting night," NW said lightly, joining Raven on the roof. It was the next evening. The Titans and the Team had spent the early hours of the morning debating the best way to imprison Madam Rouge, Monsieur Mallah, Psimon, and the Brain. Madam Rouge was easier, but the other three were a bit of a conundrum since they weren't even supposed to be in this dimension. They ended up transporting and locking up the latter three in the basement of the Titans West Tower. Apparently, there was some high-tech room down there that had originally been meant to protect someone from outside forces, but Cyborg decreed it would make just as good a holding cell as a protective room. After that everyone slept, collapsing in various rooms and on various couches. NW had only recently gotten up and asked Beast Man, who had escaped the infirmary for tofu bacon, where he could find Raven.

"I've had more exciting," Raven said in response.

They were quiet for a few minutes and NW stood next to Raven, looking out at Steel City. Finally, NW awkwardly cleared his throat and said, "I'm glad that you're safe."

"Me?" Raven asked, raising her eyebrows. "I'm not that one who was kidnapped and chained to a wall with lasers pointed at me."

"No," NW agreed, "but you were the one they were really after. The Team was just a means to an end, as Madam Rouge said."

"I can handle myself just fine," Raven assured him.

"I know," NW said, letting his hand brush hers. "I've seen you in action plenty of times, remember?" When Raven didn't move away, he kept his hand touching hers. He didn't even know what he was doing. He'd thought to himself plenty of times that things were practically over between them now. How could they not be with all the obstacles between them? But after last night, he just wanted to assure himself that she was safe. He just wanted to be close to her while he could be.

After a few more moment passed, he quietly asked, "Are you mad? About what happened with the Justice League? I wouldn't blame you if you were."

"I was upset," Raven admitted, looking up at the first stars appearing in the sky. "The circumstances around my arrival were suspicious and I didn't know myself for sure if I was a plant from the Light or not, but it still hurt."

Still looking up at the sky she said, "Some of my actions could have been considered suspicious in this world. I kept something very dangerous from the Titans that I shouldn't have, but they never lost faith in me." NW felt a pang in his chest at her words. "Then again, the Titans had never been betrayed like the Team had in the past. Once burned, twice shy as they say."

"You said you _were_ upset," NW said cautiously. "Does that mean you're not anymore?"

For a moment NW didn't think that Raven was going to answer, then Raven turned her hand to interlace her fingers with his. "It's kind of hard to stay mad at friends who could have died. When you've almost lost someone, it's easier to forgive them. I never want to be separated from people I care about with them left thinking I was angry with them or hated them."

NW sighed in relief and squeezed Raven's hand. "So where does that leave us?"

Raven blushed at NW's words and hoped that the darkening sky covered it. His question made her think of the night of the dance when she kissed him. _She_ kissed _him_. None of the Titans would believe that Raven made the first move if she told them. She almost always shied away from physical contact. She was better than she used to be, but many things related to emotion and intimacy were still somewhat foreign to her.

"I don't know," Raven admitted. "I haven't exactly been in a situation like this before."

NW chuckled. "Me either."

"No," Raven shook her head. "I don't mean all the extra complications. I mean I've never been in a romantic relationship period. Well, there was Goth Boy, but that was just a fling during my emo years. And, you didn't need to hear that last part. Scratch that from your memory, okay?"

Raven's request was fairly easy to comply with. His mind was still stuck on the first part of her statement. "So there's nothing going on between you and the Nightwing of this world?"

"No," Raven said in surprise. "He's one of my closest friends, that's all. Why would you think there was something going on between us?"

NW shrugged. "He just seems very protective of you."

"The last time I was here, he couldn't protect me," Raven said. "He saved all the other Titans, but he couldn't save me. I think he feels guilty about that. He takes the welfare of the Titans very personally. The man thinks that the fate of everything rests on his shoulders."

"I can relate," NW said. "I remember thinking when I was younger that I never wanted to have to make the choice of who lived and who died on my team. I never wanted to be in a position where that was my responsibility."

They stayed outside until the sky filled with stars. Finally, NW said, "We'd probably better go back in and join the discussion of what the Titans' next step is." He paused for a moment, then said, "I know that the Teen Titans are independent and don't seem to want to ask the Justice League for help, but I don't think that the Titans have anyone powerful enough to take on Klarion. Does this world's Justice League have a version of Zatana or Doctor Fate?"

"No," Raven stated emphatically. "I mean, yes, but we don't need them. My magic is coming back and then _I_ will have the power to take on Klarion. I will be the one to stop him."

 **A/N:** Since two people have commented on this now, I wanted to clarify Raven's statement that the Titans were never betrayed like the Team was. Yes, Terra betrayed them, but both Robin and Raven admitted that there were warning signs about Terra and they ignored them. Plus, Terra was only a member of the Titans for a short amount of time.

The betrayal of Speedy/Red Arrow in YJ was far more insidious because Red Arrow himself didn't know he was the plant and Aqualad, Robin, and Kid Flash had been friends with him for years and no one had any reason to suspect him. Raven's point was that the Team had been blindsided by a betrayal they never could have seen coming and her appearance and situation bore some similarities to Red Arrow's (a hero that was conveniently placed on the Team and couldn't know themselves that they were a plant).


	26. Merging

**Chapter 25: Merging**

"Now that we know the Brotherhood of Evil is involved with the light, we have a little bit more information about what's going on. And from M'gann looking into the minds of those we captured, we know who all is here from the Light and that their primary objective is to capture Raven to reopen the dimensional portal. We also know which members of the Brotherhood of Evil are currently working with the Light, though there's no guarantee that won't change before we see them again."

Both the Titans and the Team looked at the speaker standing in the middle of the room in surprise. It wasn't _who_ was speaking that surprised them, but the _version_ that caught everyone off guard. NW had stood up and started the meeting, as though it were the most natural thing in the world to do. It wasn't as though the Titans objected to a member of the Team speaking up, but wasn't Kaldur the Team's leader?

Raven felt the most confused of all. NW spoke as they he knew not only the Titans, but also who the Brotherhood of Evil was, and the Titans hadn't yet had a chance to debrief the Team on the Brotherhood yet. That was partially what this meeting was for.

NW seemed to realize his behavior was odd and blinked before looking around for Nightwing. "I guess you should lead this meeting," he said awkwardly, moving from his spot.

"You didn't say anything I wouldn't have said," Nightwing said, then got down to business. "I'm putting together a team to investigate the old known hideouts of the Brotherhood of Evil and see if we can learn anything, or discover if the Brotherhood is housing the Light in any of those places. I want Flash, Mas y Menos, and Speedy led by Bumble Bee to handle that."

Most of the rest of the meeting consisted of the Titans telling the Team about the Brotherhood of Evil and the Team telling the Titans about the Light, particularly the members currently in the Titans' dimension before they discussed what to do next. Raven sulked when the topic of protecting her came up, but knew that she would feel the same way if it was another one of the Titans or the Team in danger. She especially had to be careful until her powers fully returned.

~.~

After the meeting, Raven finally managed to catch Nightwing alone in his makeshift office, given to him by Bumble Bee.

"Is it hard to work without your collage of newspaper clippings, villain bios, and random villainous artifact all around you?" Raven asked as she shut the door behind her.

"It is actually," Nightwing joked. "I keep trying to look behind me for references to help in plans I want to make, and all I find is a blank wall."

Raven sat down and they stared at each other for a few moments before Nightwing stated quietly, "I'm glad you're back, Raven."

"Did any of the Titans blame you for what happened?" Raven asked, wanting to know.

Nightwing's eyes tightened, but he responded, "That doesn't matter. You're back and you're safe. What happened with Trigon is in the past now."

"So that means yes."

Nightwing sighed. "Raven, when you're leader, some people are always going to hate some of the decisions you make. It comes with the territory and it's not your concern."

"They should blame me, not you. It was my idea. And my fault that Trigon was here to begin with."

"The actions of your father aren't your fault, Raven. They weren't your fault the first time Trigon tried to take over our dimension, and they weren't your fault the second time when he took possession of your body." Nightwing spoke emphatically, hating the idea of Raven blaming herself for what happened. Not that he was one to talk, since he still felt guilty for how things turned out. The thought had haunted him for months that if they'd only had a little more time, a little warning that Trigon was coming, they could have come up with a different solution.

"So we just pretend like nothing happened?" Raven asked.

"That's not my intention," Nightwing said with a shake of his head. "When all this is over, the Titans West will plan for what to do in case Trigon ever makes another move on our dimension. And we can get all emotional and talk about our feelings too, since you seem so intent on that."

Raven scowled. "That's not what I want. Enough of my magic has come back that I can feel your guilt from here. I want you to stop feeling like what happened was your fault. The weight of everything does not rest on your shoulders, much as you'd like to act like it does and take the blame for everything that goes wrong."

"Maybe that's something we both need to work on," Nightwing said. It would be a huge relief to have Raven back. She always got after him when he took too much on himself. Too much responsibility, too much guilt, too many expectations of what he should be capable of in leading the Titans and in protecting Jump City and all those who followed his lead. Like Cyborg, Raven had taken on a larger leadership role as the Titans grew and had helped train the Titans Europe under Argent's command.

"We'll start up a class when we get back to the Titans' West Tower," Raven said. "'Learning How to Let Go of Guilt for Things That Aren't Your Fault'." She sighed. "It will be nice to go home. To see our tower and sleep in my own bed. And especially to see my library. I even think I'm excited to see some of our old villains."

"Well, I can't promise you anything as exciting as cults trying to resurrect banished gods, but Mad Mod's got a new apprentice and has managed to evade capture so far."

Raven stilled. "What did you just say?"

"I said that Mad Mod's got a new apprentice. Weird, I know. I don't know how anyone could put up with—"

"No," Raven interrupted, shaking her head. "What you said before that. How did you know about the Order of Lagash? I haven't told you anything about the other dimension other than what happened with the Justice League."

Nightwing paused and looked at Raven in surprised confusion for a moment. "I guess someone from the Team must have told me. When they first appeared and you were in a coma, I asked them how Scarlet Gem came to join the Team. They must have talked about the Order."

"I guess so," Raven agreed, feeling that something was off about the situation. The Team had been here for only a week, meaning that Nightwing had to have had that conversation mere days ago. How could he have already forgotten about it? Raven shook the thought off and passed it off as stress. A lot had happened during that week and Nightwing had much bigger concerns than remembering how the supposed Scarlet Gem ended up joining the Team.

Glancing at the clock in the corner of the room, Raven stood up. "I better get going. NW and I are training together in a few minutes."

"Why?" Nightwing asked with a frown.

"Why? You mean why am I training with NW?" Raven looked at Nightwing in confusion. "Why do you care?"

Looking uncertain, Nightwing shook his head. "It's nothing, don't worry about it."

~.~

After their training, NW and Raven sat against the wall of the training room, breathing heavy and drinking water. NW leaned his head against the wall and sighed. "I wish that we were home," he said. "I feel like it's harder to focus here."

For some odd reason, Raven's mind flashed to the Titans West Tower and she thought of Nightwing missing his office. "Are you talking about the Cave? Since when do you consider that to be home?"

NW didn't respond and Raven looked at him. His face hold a confused look similar to the one Nightwing wore earlier that day. "I just meant that it's harder to think in an unfamiliar environment with so much going on." He looked down and fiddled with his water bottle. "Though I guess that this place is closer to home for you."

Raven wanted to let it go, but something strange was going on here. Every person emitted their own particular _feeling._ Raven could tell who was in a room without seeing them. In Nightwing's office, when he asked why Raven was training with NW, he _felt_ like NW. He also felt the tiniest bit…jealous? And when NW just talked about wishing _they_ were home, he felt like Nightwing. She didn't know what was going on, but she made a mental note to keep an eye on things.

~.~

When the Titans East got a criminal alert later that day, both Nightwing and NW turned to Raven and said, "You stay here." Raven raised her eyebrows as the two young men looked at each other in surprise.

"I thought you wanted me to still fight," Raven said to NW. "Weren't you arguing that I don't need my powers to be a superhero?"

"Yes," NW agreed, scratching the back of his head. "But there's still the fact that you're the target of the Light and possibly the Brotherhood of Evil. Powers or not, it's better to ere on the side of caution, right?"

Raven narrowed her eyes, but said nothing.

~.~

NW had asked Raven to talk with him after dinner. Now that she had her memories back, he wanted to know more about her past and about her, and said he'd tell Raven more about himself. While Raven cared for NW and was looking forward to talking to him, part of her felt reluctant. She wasn't sure how much she was actually willing to tell him about her time before the Teen Titans. Not that she didn't trust him, it was just…Well, maybe part of her _didn't_ trust him. How many people would be okay with finding out that the girl they liked was half-demon and could have one serious dark side?

Raven was walking down the hall to meet with NW when Nightwing stopped her. "Where are you going, Raven? I feel like the Titans have hardly seen you since you got back."

"You mean in the less than three days I've actually been awake and between all the superheroing? I don't think that anyone here as seen much of anyone else."

"Raven," NW called. "Are you coming?" He walked up to the two and he and Nightwing looked at each other warily.

"Oh," Nightwing said flatly. "You're going somewhere with him again?"

"Is that a problem?" NW asked, crossing his arms.

"I guess not so long as you don't hand her over to anyone who might give her to the Light."

Raven sucked in a breath and NW balled his hands fists. "That wasn't our intention," he said darkly. "I didn't want anything to happen to her. And how would you know what it truly means to care for someone until you've gone into the very depths of hell to save them?"

"What?" Raven and Nightwing echoed each other, Raven looking shocked and Nightwing looking angry. NW's look turned confused.

"Okay," Raven said, holding up her hands. "There is something _very_ strange going on here and the three of us are going to sit down together until we figure it out. Both of you keep saying things that I would expect the other to say, and you keep _feeling_ like each other."

"Feeling like each other?" NW questioned.

"Yes. Every living being has a psychic echo, and your echoes keep getting confused."

"Maybe it's because we're the same person, just from different dimensions?" Nightwing suggested.

Raven shook her head. "If that were true than Beast Man and Beast Boy would be having the same problem, but both of them are acting and feeling normally. The problem is with the two of you. Now, we're going to Nightwing's office."

Once Nightwing and NW sat down, Raven turned to NW. "What did you mean about going to hell to save someone?"

NW rubbed his face. "I don't know. I just _feel_ like I remember having to go down there to save you, except you were a kid somehow. I remember how panicked I felt that I might never see you again, but that never happened, did it? How would you have even ended up in hell to begin with?"

"It _did_ happen actually," Nightwing said. "Just in this world, and _I_ was the one who did the saving."

"All right," Raven said. "Nightwing has memories of the Order of Lagash and NW has memories from when Trigon first attacked. Did this start after the Team came to this dimension?"

"No," NW admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "I've been having dreams of someone who looked like you except wearing…the cloak you're wearing now. I think I was dreaming of the Teen Titans."

"And I think I've been dreaming about the Team for a couple months now," Nightwing added. "I kept seeing you in a cave with other superheroes, but I didn't know what it meant."

"When did this start happening?" Raven asked NW.

"I think that the first dream was after…" He paused to think. "It happened right after the League of Shadows kidnapped us in Paris."

Raven thought back and then gasped. "When I woke up you were connected to a machine. I had no idea what it was or what it did, but it was the trans-dimensional device. Connecting the machine to someone who doesn't have magic must consequences. I think it connected you with the Nightwing of this dimension somehow."

"So what do we need to do?" NW asked. "Should we go get M'gann to separate our memories?"

"It's not just that," Raven said, shaking her head. "Like I said, you two keep _feeling_ like the other person. M'gann might be able to help you sort out which memories actually belong to you, but your consciousness' are either switching, or merging. M'gann can't help with that."

NW paled. "Will this keep happening?"

"I think that I can fix it," Raven said. "I'll have to go deep into your minds to sort out who's who though."

"Do you have enough magic for this?" Nightwing asked.

"Yes," Raven assured him. "But I need one of you to move your chair so that you're sitting right next to each other."

Nightwing picked up his chair and scooted next to NW. Having both of them stare at Raven unnerved her, so she moved to stand behind them and laid one hand on each man's shoulders. She didn't need to be touching them to go inside their minds, but it made it easier to focus, and Raven had never gone inside two minds at once.

Delving inside was a confusing mishmash of broken and half-formed memories. Raven felt queasy just looking at it and wondered how confused the two men must have felt and how long it had been going on for. Knowing both Nightwings, it was impossible to tell. They weren't ones to complain or let others know of any weaknesses.

Raven decided to start with Nightwing first, since she was much more familiar with his mind and memories. Both because she'd been inside his mind before and because she'd been a constant part of his life for years now. She pulled out his memories of his time with the Flying Graysons and stacked them neatly, checking and pulling out anything that didn't match or that felt more like NW. Then she moved on to his years under Batman. Once she reached what she thought of as the Teen Titan Era of Nightwing's life, things became much easier. She could see large patches of memory missing, but she was sure she'd find them when she looked inside NW's mind.

She tried not to pry too deeply into his thoughts, but it was impossible not to see anything. She felt relieved when she saw his feelings for her. Deep devotion and protectiveness, but no romantic feelings. The jealousy she felt from him must have been NW's feeling manifesting inside Nightwing. He did, understandably, feel weirded out by seeing her with NW and he was wary of NW hurting her, but Nightwing would probably feel that way about any guy Raven got close to.

Gently easing out of Nightwing's mind, Raven moved onto NW. The mess felt larger inside NW's mind since he had all his memories now plus some of Nightwing's, and it was more confusing since it wasn't as familiar. It wasn't horrendous though, all things considered. Their lives hadn't been that different. There were small differences and as they got older and their paths forked a little more, but both still made decisions and had events in their lives that led to them becoming Robin and then Nightwing. Raven pulled out all the bits that felt like Nightwing, or that she immediately knew as Nightwing's, and put them where they belonged.

At the end of NW's memories, she found a lot about her. About the interest NW felt when her knowledge of languages and fighting abilities came to light. About how much he enjoyed fighting with her and then came to fear that she belonged somewhere else and with someone else. She tried not to see anymore, knowing that it wasn't fair. Deeming their minds organized enough, she pulled back.

"How do you feel?" She asked.

"Better," Nightwing said, rolling his shoulders back. "I feel like I can think clearly now."

"Does that mean that you two can be civil to each other now?" Raven asked with raised eyebrows.

"I think we can manage that," NW said, his look and emotions unreadable to Raven.


	27. Battle

**Chapter 26: Battle**

"Thanks for the help, NW," Bumble Bee said as they finished installing Cyborg's new detection software at the highest point in Steel City. Cyborg had created a program to hack into cell phone conversations and search for keywords. If any of those keywords were used, the conversation would be recorded and the conversation as well as the location of the cellphone would be forwarded to Cyborg. The range was limited and the Titans West were installing the same program in Jump City, which they had returned to a week ago, almost right after Raven fixed NW's and the other Nightwing's merging problem. The whole merging things still creeped him out.

"No problem. Technology is my expertise. At least, I thought it was until I met Cybrog."

Bumble Bee laughed. "Don't feel too bad. I bet he'd put anyone to shame. The Teen Titans are largely funded through patents on Cyborg's various creations."

NW gave a low whistle. "I'd been wondering how you guys operated without the support of the Justice League." As he'd learned about the Teen Titans, he couldn't help but feel a little jealous. When the Justice League sidekicks banded together in his dimension, they ended up creating an awesome team that accomplished a lot of amazing things. But his counterpart in this dimension had gone off on his own and created a team that grew to cover all of the United States and Europe, with honorary members scattered around the world. He wasn't sure if it gave him an inferiority complex or made him feel like he wasn't living up to his full potential. He tried to convince himself that the second thought was more accurate.

When they returned to the Titans East Tower, it was evening and Beast Boy was moping, which he'd been doing most of the week since Beast Man and Raven left. The Team had a chance to talk to Raven before she left and they parted on good terms. Raven had tried to talk to NW alone, but he'd avoided her. After seeing Nightwing's memories…Maybe Raven was telling the truth when she said that there was nothing going on between her and Nightwing, but they still had a bond that NW felt like he couldn't get between. How could he compare to a guy who went to hell itself (or at least, some version of it) to save Raven? He could never ask her to leave the Teen Titans to be with him. As if she'd even consider the idea in the first place.

"Uh, could someone come take a look at this?" Speedy asked, sitting in front of the bank of computer monitors in the living room. "I think it looks like we've got incoming from the air, but I'm not sure. Either that or a pod of albatrosses coming in from the ocean. Do albatrosses travel in pods?"

Kaldur and Garth joined Speedy at the computer while Superboy went to the window. He couldn't see as far as Superman, but he did have better than average eyesight. He narrowed his eyes as he looked out at sea, then he spun around, looking panicked. "Someone get Bumble Bee," he ordered. "And call the other Titans!"

"What is it, Superboy?" M'gann asked.

"Robots," Superboy answered. "They look like Amazo, except, there are four of them this time."

~.~

"Glad to be home?" Cyborg asked Raven, joining her as she stood at the window looking out over Jump City.

"Yes," Raven said, meaning it down to her core. Part of her missed the Cave and the Team. Having breakfast and dinner with M'gann, Superboy, and Beast Boy. Listening to Beast Boy chatter about whatever video game he was currently playing and him proudly showing off his souvenir from their latest mission. But the Titans and Jump City would always be home. The Teen Titans offered her acceptance as no one else ever had in her life.

"You _will_ be telling us about all your adventures with the Team, right?"

"Sure," Raven agreed. "And you'll tell me all about what's gone on here?"

"It was tough without you," Cyborg said quietly. "Not just the crime fighting, but everything else too. We tried to get you back. Had Jinx and Argent research how to find a soul and all that. Now we know why Jinx's spell didn't work though. Hard to reach a soul that isn't even in the proper dimension."

"Thank you," Raven said. "For trying. Maybe that's what I should have been doing. Looking to find a way back to the Titans."

"You're so fatalistic whenever it comes to anything involving Trigon," Cyborg said, nudging Raven with is arm. "I thought you knew better after the first time."

"I should have," Raven admitted. "I guess some lessons you have to learn more than once."

"Next time, learn it in a less drastic way that doesn't take you away from the Titans, okay?"

"I'll try," Raven agreed, giving Cyborg a small smile. Thinking about leaving the Titans made her think of the Team, which made her thinks of NW. He'd been offish and made excuses when she tried to talk to him last, which confused her. She knew that he cared for her, she'd seen it inside his own mind. Why was he distancing himself from her?

Raven jumped in surprise when the criminal alarm went off. A moment later, Beast Man, Starfire, and Nightwing appeared in the room. "Titans, the Team and the Titans East are in trouble," Nightwing announced. "They're being attacked by a robot that Kaldur called Amazo. Bumble Bee said they need immediate backup."

"Uhhh, how are we going to provide immediate backup?" Beast Man asked. "In case you've forgotten, Steel City is on the other side of the country."

~.~

"You can't use your powers on them!" Superboy ground out, shoving Garth so that his water attack on one of the robots went wide. They stood just outside the Titans East Tower. The fight had begun inside, as the broken windows and destroyed furniture could attest to, but quickly moved out to the beach.

"Then how are we supposed to fight?" Garth ground out in irritation.

"If you use your powers on them, they'll gain your power!" Superboy snapped. "Professor Ivo created Amazo to replicate the powers of the Justice League and take them down. That was _one_ of these robots."

"How do you know that they're the same?" The quarrelling heroes had to jump apart as one of the robots came barreling in between them. "One of the robots isn't even joining the fight." He pointed up at the one who flew high above them all, doing nothing but monitoring the fight.

"Because it doesn't _need_ to. Look around you!"

Speedy, NW, and Kaldur were trying to hold off one of the robots only using weapons, but nothing had left a dent so far. M'gann, Bumble Bee, and Beast Boy were flying around the second robot, but as they watched, the robot replicated Bumble Bee's sting and used it on her. Her body convulsed as she dropped towards the ground and M'gann raced after her. Mas y Menos were off searching for help since Kaldur recommended to Bumble Bee that she send them away. The last thing they needed was for the robots to gain super speed.

"Crap," Garth muttered as he watched M'gann catch his leader.

When the third robot made its next pass around, it grabbed Garth around the waist and lifted him into the air. Garth struggled, trying to reach behind him to bash the robot with his Atlantean strength, but if Kaldur couldn't hurt one of these things, what chance did he have?

Deciding he had no other choice, Garth called up a tornado of water from the ocean and directed the burst at the robot. It flew sideways, knocked off its course, and Garth managed to loose himself from its arms. He fell to the ocean and readied the water for another attack before sending it streaming towards the robot again. Before the water reached its goal, it paused in the air and started fighting its way back to Garth. He gasped in surprise as he watched the robot use his own powers to push the water back towards him. He'd known what Superboy had said, but he hadn't really believed that this robot could copy the powers of an Atlantean.

A few yards away, NW cursed as he dodged another slash from the robot's arm. Kaldur was already bleeding from one such slash, having moved to protect Speedy from the blow and to give the archer a clear shot. Speedy readied another explosive arrow, but NW doubted it would be any more useful than the other two had been. The arrow hit the robot in the eye and detonated. One bright light winked out, emitting some sparks.

The small moment of triumph was drowned out as the robot just kept coming, not seeming hindered in the least by the damage.

~.~

From a nearby rooftop, Vandal Savage, Klarion and Professor Ivo watched. Ivo held a camera, which was providing a live feed for the Brotherhood of Evil. The Brain promised that if things went well, they would join the Light in this attack on the Titans. Otherwise, they were done.

"Well?" Ivo prompted, zeroing in on Superboy trying to wrestle one of the Aqualads away from the waves that kept crashing down on him.

"Your robots are impressive," the Brain admitted over their communication link. "The Titans and the superheroes from your world seem to be faring poorly against them. We will see if that still continues when the other Titans arrive to help."

" _If_ they arrive in time to help," Professor Ivo corrected.

~.~

NW gagged as the robot got in a punch to his stomach. With a yell, Speedy pounced on the robot's back, jabbing one of his arrows into the connections at the back of its neck. Or at least, he tried to. The tip of the arrow bent and Speedy was thrown back.

NW recovered quickly and grabbed another batarang. They needed time to regroup and _think,_ but they barely had a few seconds between the attacks from the robot. NW didn't even know how the others were doing. He didn't have the time to look away from his own fight.

Everything seemed to come to a standstill when the words, "Azarath metrion zinthos!" rang out across the beach. NW glanced upward as he watched black light surround the robot hurling water. The dark light seemed to seep into each individual piece making up the robot before separating the component parts. The separate pieces all glowed with that black light before it faded and the pieces of the robot dropped into the ocean.

"Holy crap," NW murmured, he and Kaldur staring upward in shocked surprised. "What Titan did that and where have they been hiding?"

Speedy smirked. "Looks like Raven's got her full powers back."

NW searched for her and was surprised to find her in the sky, Starfire at her side. "She can _fly_?" His last glimpse of Raven was of the final robot high above them charging for her before the robot before him renewed its attack.

In the sky, Raven flew backwards as a robot she hadn't noticed came streaking towards her. She didn't know why it had been flying so high above the others and not joining the fight, but it was clearly aiming for her.

"I do not think so!" Starfire exclaimed, flying into the robot's path and meeting it head on. She clasped the robot's arms and kept flying, taking the robot away from the rest of the fighting. Raven turned her attention to the robot trying to smash a green cheetah that had to be Beast  
Boy, but Klarion appeared in front of her, blocking her view.

"So good of you to join us!" Klarion exclaimed. "You shouldn't waste your power like that though. We're going to be using it soon enough."

"You know," Raven commented, "if you hadn't been so focused on including me in your plans, you might not be in this predicament right now."

"Huh," Klarion tapped one long black nail on his chin as he considered it. "You're probably right. It didn't have to be you. You were just so convenient. But then you weren't convenient. Oh well." He shrugged. "Now that we've gone through all this effort because of you, you either end up as our battery or end up dead for all the trouble you've caused us."

"We'll see about that," Raven said, her eyes glowing white. "This fight won't be like the first time we met. Azarath metrion zinthos!" Raven threw her power at Klarion and he swooped to avoid it, then retaliated with a blast of energy. Raven threw up a shield before channeling her power into black lightning. She struck the Lord of Chaos and he fell several feet before catching himself.

Klarion growled, his eyes glowing red. "All right, you've got some skill," he admitted. "But you still won't win this fight!" Back and forth they battled, both using increasingly advanced magic. Klarion teleported behind Raven, hoping to catch her by surprise. Sensing his presence, she sent her soul-self shooting through him. He recovered from the attack moments later and the battle continued.

~.~

"Copy this!" Beast Man exclaimed before transforming into a triceratops and charging a robot slashing at NW. NW kept the robot occupied until the last second before dropping to the ground and rolling out of the way. The robot crumpled as twelve tons of dinosaur stomped all on it.

"That's one way to deal with a robot," NW said, looking at the smashed pieces littering the ground.

"That's how I _always_ deal with robots," Beast Man said casually after transforming back to a human.

"Now there's just two," Kaldur said, finally taking a moment to bind the cut on his arm.

"There's something different about these robots," NW commented, kneeling down and picking up some of the bigger pieces left intact. "Professor Ivo whipped these up pretty quick and I don't think he had time to make them as good as the original Amazo."

"They seemed plenty good to me," Speedy panted, wiping the sweat from his brow. "I wouldn't want to fight one of those every day."

"I'll be right back," Beast Man commented before transforming into a pterodactyl and flying towards the robot Beast Boy, M'gann, and Bumble Bee were facing. From the ground, Cyborg shot sonic blasts at the robot.

"The robot can't copy Cyborg's blasts, right?" NW asked Kaldur.

"I do not believe so," Kaldur answered. "At least not if these robots are like Amazo. Amazo was created to copy the powers of meta-humans, not the capabilities of manmade weapons."

"I don't think that these robots are as advanced as Amazo," NW said again as he watched the heroes defeat the robot bit-by-bit. The last robot that had stayed far above the fighting seemed to have been inferior to the other three as Starfire came flying back and threw the robot, now in two pieces, to the ground.

"So, what's your point?" Speedy asked.

"My point is that I don't think these robots are smart enough to act on their own. I think Professor Ivo has to be nearby controlling them."

"M'gann!" Kaldur called. "We need your assistance. Superboy can take your place."

M'gann extracted herself from the fight with the now failing robot and flew down to them. "NW believes that Professor Ivo must be nearby to control the robots," Kaldur told her. "Can you sense him?"

M'gann closed her eyes and focused her powers, searching the surrounding area. Her eyes snapped open. "I got him! And he's not alone, Vandal Savage is with him."

"Good. Let's end this now," Kaldur said. As the last robot fell to the Earth, the Titans and the Team gathered.

~.~

"We've seen enough," the Brain ground out. "This attempted alliance is over." The communication link went dead.

"All that work for nothing!" Ivo exclaimed, slamming the camera onto the rooftop. He spun around, planning to march off into the building, only to find a row of superheroes waiting.

"So you're the robot guy," one of them said before they pounced.

~.~

Way up in the air, Klarion stopped fighting, gasping and rearing back as he pointed a finger at Raven. "You—you—you should be on my side!"

"What?" Raven asked, the black light surrounding her hands fading away at her surprise.

"You're the daughter of Trigon! You and I should be allies!"

"Who my father is does not define who I am," Raven responded harshly. Then she realized her mistake in this battle. She'd been fighting with too much anger, too much to desire to finally make Klarion pay for all the havoc he'd caused her, the Team, and now the Titans, but she could do better than this. She _was_ better than this.

Raven closed her eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on why she fought. She became a hero to do good in the world, not for vengeance. She fought to protect those she loved and all the innocent people in the world who couldn't protect themselves. _That_ was her purpose. As Raven filled her mind with these thoughts, a bright light surrounded her head before flowing down her body, changing her cloak from blue to white as it did so. When Raven opened her eyes, they shone with power. "This is _my_ world, Chaos Lord, and you are not welcome here." Raven threw her arms out and a blast of white energy surrounded Klarion before transporting him away to his home dimension, far away from both the Titans' and the Team's dimensions. He'd be stuck there for a while since Raven's white magic drained Klarion's evil magic, the same as it had done to Trigon years ago, though on a much smaller scale this time.

Raven flew down to the ground to meet the rest of the superheroes and found the other robots already defeated as well as Professor Ivo and Vandal Savage tied up. Professor Ivo was pouting, but Savage looked as cool as ever.

"You have no evidence of wrongdoing by any us," Savage told Kaldur. "All you've managed is to slow our plans, as usual."

"Perhaps," Kaldur agreed, narrowing his eyes. "But the day will come when you slip up and we will be there waiting when that day comes."

"And it will be _without_ my help," Professor Ivo ground out. "This is the _last_ straw. I'm done with the Light and going solo. I'm _not_ building a fourth trans-dimensional device, so find your own way back here." Savage's cool look finally cracked as he sent a chilling glare at the inventor.

"I guess that means we've taken care of everything now," Beast Boy said sadly. "The only thing left is for us all to return home."

 **A/N:** Only one more chapter to go. I know I rushed the end compared to the beginning and I do apologize for that. This fic has been a real struggle to write for some reason and it hasn't been fun for a while now, but hopefully the ending will still be satisfying.


	28. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

With Vandal Savage and Professor Ivo apprehended and Klarion out of the picture for now, Raven teleported the Titans West, the Team, and their prisoners back to the Titans West Tower, where the rest of the Light was still stashed.

Now the two teams were discussing what was to be done with the Light once the Team returned to their own dimension. "The smashed up robots and the computer program Ivo used to control them are evidence of Professor Ivo breaking the terms of his parole," NW said. "That will get him sent back to Belle Reve."

"And Psimon never served any prison time for his actions at the border of Bialya and Qurac," M'gann said. "The leader of Qurac couldn't go after Queen Bee for trying to usurp him for diplomatic reasons, but Psimon is another matter. I'm not sure if they'd still put him on trial since some claimed the psychic coma I put him in was punishment enough, but we can certainly offer him up to Qurac and see what they say."

Kaldur nodded. "As for the Brain, Monsieur Mallah, and Vandal Savage, I'm afraid that Savage was correct in his statement that we have no evidence of them committing wrongdoing."

"They kidnapped Scarlet Gem," Raven said. "Does that count if I testify against them?"

Kaldur shook his head. "Unfortunately, it was Klarion who took you and you have no memories of what happened after that. You couldn't even testify that those three were ever in the same vicinity as you."

Beast Boy folded his arms and grumbled. "What kind of a society lets supervillains run around just because we don't have evidence of what crimes they've committed right at the moment? We know plenty of other things that they've done."

"The kind of society that values parasitic lawyers," Superboy said.

"And not locking people up without just cause," Raven added dryly. "I know it's frustrating when the bad guys get away, but without evidence, anyone could be locked up so long as someone accused them of doing something."

"Yeah, I guess," Beast Boy agreed, scuffing the floor with his foot.

"Kaldur, why don't you and I discuss how you see the transfer from our dimension to your dimension going?" Nightwing suggested. Kaldur nodded and the two wandered off. The other Titans seemed to take that as some sort of cue and left, waving a good night to the assembled group.

"We'll really miss you, Raven," Beast Boy said, staring at the floor. "The Cave won't be the same without you."

"Don't make this harder on her," NW admonished Beast Boy. "Raven has been through a lot in the last year."

Raven resisted the urge to tap her foot. "NW, could I talk to you for a moment?"

"Sure," he agreed, looking surprised. Raven grabbed his arm and dragged him off to an empty room. Once inside, she stepped back from him, crossing her arms and giving him a look. "What's up, Raven?"

"That's what I wanted to ask you."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Really?" Raven raised her eyebrows. Was NW just being stubborn or could he really not know? Was it possible she'd confused Nightwing's and NW's feelings and it was Nightwing that cared for her romantically?

"I mean, if you were looking to say goodbye then…I wanted to say that I think you're the most amazing woman I've ever met, and that's saying something. You always put others above yourself, whether it's a teammate or a civilian, even without any memories. You're smart and crazy talented at fighting and surveillance. And it looks like your magic would put Zatana's to shame. I wish…but I understand how much the Titans mean to you. After seeing some of Nightwing's memories, I would never dream of doing anything ridiculous like asking you to leave them."

"Ridiculous, huh?" Raven asked, her fingers tapping out an irritated rhythm on her arm. "So you don't want to see me again then?"

"Wh—why would you think that? Didn't I just finish telling you how amazing I think you are? Would you like more? The list is longer if you're looking for more detail. Or maybe you think I don't care about learning more about you. I want to know what _made_ you such a caring person, that being a superhero is so intrinsic to who you are that you somehow ended up a superhero while an amnesiac in another dimension. I want to know where you grew up and where you learned your magic from. I want to know why you decided to become a superhero in the first place and how it happened, I want—"

Raven put her fingers on NW's lips, stopping him from saying more. "Then why are you acting like you don't want to see me again? Why have you been pulling away from me?"

NW froze, looking cautiously at Raven, as though he was afraid she was joking with him. "You want to come back? From the memories I saw, I didn't think anything could convince you to leave the Titans."

"Who said anything about leaving the Titans? Have you forgotten what started this whole mess in the first place? I can travel between dimensions."

"It's not hard to do?" NW asked slowly. "I mean, I know you said that's why the Light needed you as the power source for the trans-dimensional device, but since they were so fixated on you I figured that power was, I don't know, really hard to use I guess? Really energy consuming? Maybe I just don't really understand what it means to create portals to other dimensions."

"I was born and grew up on a plane that exists between dimensions," Raven explained. "I create a portal between dimensions every time I visit my mother."

"So, this isn't goodbye then?"

"Not unless you want it to be, and you seem pretty intent on—" This time it was NW who cut Raven off, though he used his lips instead of his fingers. Raven inhaled sharply, with NW gripping her shoulders and pulling her close.

A moment later, he pulled back a few inches to look Raven in the eye. "I _definitely_ don't want this to be goodbye."

 _Three Months Later_ (because I used three months for the other two time skips, so might as well be consistent at this point)

"You look beautiful," Dick said right after Raven teleported to his apartment, sliding an arm around her waist and leaning down to kiss her.

"You say that every time you see me."

Dick grinned and kissed the jewel on her forehead. "It's because I don't see enough of you. I forget what you look like in between visits. It's a nice surprise every time."

Raven couldn't help her smile, despite the corny line.

"And that necklace looks great on you, but I have to wonder, do you only wear it when you come to see me?" Dick asked. Raven was wearing the ruby necklace he had bought her shortly after he first saved her from the League of Shadows, which she'd retrieved on her first visit back to the Team's dimension.

"I wear it other times," Raven defended. "You can ask Starfire the next time I bring you to the Teen Titan's dimension."

"I will," Dick threatened. "And Beast Boy has been nagging me that he wants to see you. So, at end of our date today or the next time you come, we'll have to visit the Cave. Just to warn you, while Beast Boy does miss you, I also think he wants an update on his counterpart. I think that Beast Man has become Beast Boy's hero."

"Well, isn't there someone out there who says that you should be your own hero? Though Beast Boy may not have to rely on me for Beast Man updates for long."

"Why not?"

"Cyborg and I are working on making new T Phones that combine magic and technology so the phones would work across dimensions." Raven had been nervous about asking Cyborg for help on the project. Not because she didn't think he would or could do it, but because it felt so girly to ask him to help her make a phone so she could talk to her boyfriend more often. Cyborg had thought the phones a brilliant idea (Vandal Savage had threatened to return, after all, and it'd be good if the two teams could contact and warn each other at a moment's notice), and he was excited about the challenge. And the teasing from him and Beast Man had been minimal. The fact that she had teleported Beast Man outside the tower from the top floor when he started teasing her helped.

"That's a great idea," Dick said, squeezing Raven's hand. "Come grab me on Saturday and I'll help out. I'd love to learn more from Cyborg."

"But you wouldn't love to see your girlfriend?" Raven teased. Being Scarlet Gem and Rachel for a period of time had made Raven a lighter person. Living without the memories of who and what she was for a time had lifted a burden that Raven had never fully understood she had, having lived with it her entire life.

"Didn't we already establish that I don't see you enough? The excitement over getting to see you is a given." Dick glanced at his watch. "We should get going. Our reservations are in half an hour." And the two of them left for date number five. Or six if you counted the first one from months ago. Raven saw no reason to since no romantic feelings had been involved at the time, but Dick insisted on counting that first date. When she argued, he threatened to count him saving her as their first date, so she eventually gave in. After all, M'gann and Starfire had insisted, the two needed to agree on a date for their anniversary.

 **A/N:** Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed. I probably wouldn't have continued this story if I hadn't gotten so much positive feedback from so many readers. A special thanks to LostPrincessHolly, All'roundCowgirl, notdeadyet1, Ryockucho-sensei, Hithros, xenocanaan, and DoDo1401 for their reviews. I hope everyone enjoyed it till the end!

Also, if anyone reading this is a fan of the anime Brothers Conflict, I'm thinking that's the fanfiction I'll write next. This fic didn't have as much romance as I originally planned, but the Brothers Conflict will have a whole lot more.


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